Black and White
by Obsidian3
Summary: Apple hadn't been thrilled with the idea of taking Home Evilnomics, but it was worth it. Though, perhaps, not for the reason she thought...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** _Ever After High_ is owned by Mattel.

 **Author's Note:** I've never written anything for this fandom before, but the muse has recently latched onto it, and isn't going to leave me alone unless I at least get started on one of the freshly-spawned plotbunnies. I've actually started several, but finished a chapter for this one first. (The reason it ends where it does is that this chapter was just getting too long, so I had to split it in two.) Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Class Confusion Redux

This was absurd.

First, Raven had rejected her evil heritage, going out of her way to be nice and friendly. Apple had been able to deal with that. She and her destined Prince, Daring Charming, weren't even dating because they _were_ only in high school, after all. If Raven didn't want to be evil until their story properly began, that was fine. (She'd privately admitted to herself that it would certainly make her impulsive decision to convince Headmaster Grimm to let her be Raven's roommate easier to take, as having an outright evil roommate could have been... difficult to endure.)

After that, Raven had refused to sign the Storybook of Legends, denying Apple her Happily Ever After and splitting the school into a hostile mix of Royals and Rebels. Because _she_ didn't want to be evil. Because _she_ didn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. (Apple could _almost_ agree with the latter part, given how the Evil Queen had gone completely off-script and begun invading other stories, trying to conquer... well, pretty much everywhere, really.) Because she wanted to write _her own_ destiny. Nevermind that she was placing the lives of every single other person in their story at risk, as well as her own. That had been harder to take, but Apple supposed such selfishness was only to be expected from evil villains, so in a way, it was a good sign, she'd told herself. Clearly, for all her kindness, Raven _did_ have some evil in her. Also, that very kindness would surely motivate Raven to change her mind and sign the book, to keep them all from being erased from existence, wouldn't it? She just had to be patient. Even as more and more time slipped past, and her patience began to strain, Apple clung to her hopeful belief that Raven would do the right thing.

This, though...

At first, she honestly hadn't thought she'd heard Raven correctly. She'd been standing a good distance away in a large, crowded space from where Raven and Maddie had been talking, after all. She knew that she'd only caught parts of their conversation, so it could have had a perfectly innocent explanation. (Or a perfectly evil explanation? Was that really too much to ask for?) So she'd turned around and walked over to them to ask. Unfortunately, it turned out that she _had_ heard what she thought she'd heard. Everything else had been bad enough, but this was just the golden straw that broke the camel's back. Raven actually wanted to take... to take...

"Princessology," Apple repeated slowly. " _You_ want to sign up for _Princessology_?" She couldn't quite keep the blatant skepticism from her voice.

Raven, who could hardly have missed that if she'd tried, didn't seem to appreciate it. "And why shouldn't I? I _am_ a princess, remember?"

That was true, Apple had to admit. She'd hardly forgotten that Raven was also the daughter of the Good King, especially since she was fairly sure that he was a large part of the reason Raven didn't seem to have any interest in being evil. As such, she knew she needed to be careful, here. One thing Raven would _**not**_ tolerate was someone disparaging her father, and Apple didn't like fighting with her friends. (Or anyone, really.) Not to mention the fact that she knew from experience that approaching conversations with Raven like that never worked. When Raven got angry, she simply stopped listening, instead just blindly clinging to her beliefs, deciding that she was right and everyone else was wrong. "I know that, I just... I'm afraid that they won't exactly... accept you, or make you feel... _at all_ welcome... you know?" Whether or not that was the primary reason for her objection or not, it was entirely true. In the many (many, many, many, many) times her mother had lectur- er, _talked to_ Apple about the subject, she'd pointed out that one couldn't be the Fairest of Them All if she went around lying.

Raven clearly realized that Apple meant what she was saying, as her expression softened. "I know, and I do appreciate your concern. But nothing will ever change in how people view me if I just stick to the status quo. People are already afraid of me, so it's not like I really have anything to lose in that respect."

Okay, this approach wasn't working. Time to try something else. "Do you even know what Princessology is _about_?"

One corner of Raven's mouth quirked up in amusement. "How to be a better princess?"

"Technically, yes," Apple admitted. "But probably not in the way that you're thinking. That would be more like... Kingdom Management, maybe? People might have less of an issue with you signing up for that." Even Evil Queens needed to know how to run their prospective kingdoms, after all.

"I did actually think about that," Raven told her. "Unfortunately, it was full."

It _was_ a pretty popular class among the royal set, Apple privately agreed. Especially since, unlike Princessology, it wasn't limited to just girls. "Aw, that's too bad. You should be okay, though. I don't really know your father myself, but from everything I've heard, he's really good at his job, so I'm sure he could help you out there. Ooo! Father-daughter bonding!" she squealed. She only needed Raven to poison her, after all; she had no problem with the other girl learning how to be the kind of queen her people deserved. Surely she could do both?

Raven smiled, presumably pleased by Apple good opinion of her father. "I probably will. In the meantime, though... I'm not quite good enough at getting my magic to do what I want to sign up for Good Magic Mastery, and Debate doesn't really appeal, so Princessology is really the only choice left."

Personally, Apple thought Debate class might have been a better idea. If Raven had to try and argue things from an evil point of view, maybe that might have helped her want to embrace her destiny? Saying that would only start the fight she was trying to avoid, however, so she insisted, "I just don't think it'll work out. I mean, I honestly don't see you even making it through the smiling practice."

Raven blinked. "The... what?"

Apple sighed. "Honestly, Raven, shouldn't you at least find out what a class entails before signing up for it?"

"There wasn't exactly a lot of information available at the table," Raven defended. "And Mrs. Her Majesty the White Queen was signing me up for it almost before I even said anything."

Apple just barely stopped herself from sighing again. (Once was excusable, if only just, but twice in less than a minute would be simply unacceptable for a princess.) Even for Wonderlandians, the White Queen was rather... odd. She would sometimes react to things before they happened, but not at all afterward, as if she were experiencing them backward. It made a kind of sense, given what little she knew about the Looking Glass Land (which may have been an alternate world, a subdimension of Wonderland, a specific location within Wonderland, or, impossibly, all of the above), though honestly, the fact that she understood it at all was somewhat worrying to Apple. If the White Queen had signed Raven up for the class before her roommate could ask, there was at least one timeline in which it was a foregone conclusion that Raven would be taking Princessology. That made arguing against it harder, but Apple could be fairly stubborn herself, when she wanted to be. "You could have asked me. I had that class last semester. This isn't going to end well, Raven. It would be like me randomly signing up for..." She wasn't quite sure what an appropriate comparison would be, but seeing Madam Baba Yaga passing by in the background and running through her mental list of which teachers taught what classes gave her an idea. "...for Home Evilnomics! It just wouldn't make any sense!"

"Ooo, I'll say it wouldn't!" Maddie interjected happily. Apple had almost forgotten the Wonderland girl was there, as intent as she'd been on getting Raven to understand that she was making a mistake. Given her coloring, outfit, and personality, that really shouldn't have been possible. She also didn't like how excited Maddie sounded about the insane idea of her taking a villainy class. "Maybe I should sign up for it, too! Oh, wait, no, that's when I'm taking Riddling. Oh, well, you'll have to have fun without me!"

"I'm not going to be-!" Apple broke off, taking a deep breath. "That was kind of the point of the comparison."

"Maybe you should sign up for it," Raven said. Apple eyed her warily. She'd occasionally wondered if Wonderland madness was contagious, and this certainly seemed to argue in favor of that theory. "Don't look at me like that, I'm serious," Raven continued, noticing the stare she was getting. "It might just help you understand, if only a little, why I refuse to follow in my mother's footsteps."

Except that ignoring her story and trying to write her own destiny was _exactly_ what her mother had done. Though... It might give her some inspiration as to how to get Raven to be _her_ Evil Queen. "If I did," Apple began slowly, "then you wouldn't get to quit Princessology, no matter how much you hated it, or deliberately flunk out. You'd have to try your best, and give it everything you've got."

If Raven resented the implication that she might have done otherwise, it didn't show. "You know what? You're on. It'll be worth it to help you get why evil is not something to aspire to."

Apple frowned. She got that just fine, she thought, she just wasn't sure goodness could even _exist_ without evil. Like darkness and light. She also wasn't sure how things had gone from her trying to talk Raven out of signing up for a class she didn't belong in to her signing up for one herself. "Fine. I've never quit anything in my entire life." She didn't miss Raven's muttered " _Tell_ me about it..." but chose to ignore it. "But you have something of a history of changing your mind about things mid-way through," she continued, discreetly alluding to the events of Legacy Day. "So you swear to me on your father's Good name that you won't do that this time."

It was as serious of an oath as she knew how to request of her roommate, and it _did_ give Raven pause. Apple hoped it would be enough to get her to reconsider and realize what she was doing before things went too far, but to her mild horror, Raven nodded slowly and, with appropriate seriousness, quietly proclaimed, "I swear, in the name of my father, the Good King, I will not quit Princessology, and will do everything I can to pass."

 _Oh, Fairy Godmother,_ Apple thought, torn between alarm and dismay. What had she just agreed to?

For no evident reason, Maddie giggled and clapped her hands excitedly, proclaiming, "You're right, Mister Narrator, this is going to be _so_ much fun!"

Apple paused, blinked, then shot Raven a bewildered look. Raven just shook her head. "No, don't ask. Trust me, you don't want to know."

That, at least, was one thing they could agree on completely.

* * *

Something told her that this semester's Home Evilnomics was going to be a bit... different... than usual. It might have been that it had been moved from early afternoon to mid-morning. It might have been that the number of students had dropped to the point where almost everyone got to have their own lab table.

Or it might have been that _Apple freaking White_ had just walked into the classroom.

Jaye knew who she was, of course. Even if she hadn't been forced to attend Legacy Day, she would have recognized the future Snow White. Everyone did. Most popular girl in school, nauseatingly sweet and perky, and as full of herself as any of the royalty (good _**or**_ evil), White was pretty much the poster girl for the Royal set. If there was one advantage to not actually having a story herself, it was that she hadn't been forced to choose between siding with White and her stuck up Royals, or that embarrassment to the forces of evil everywhere, Raven Queen, and her "Rebels". Honestly, they could both go jump in a lake, for all she cared.

So why the hex was White walking into the Home Evilnomics classroom like however much she didn't want to be there - and her "little girl lost in the Dark Forest" expression made it clear that she didn't - she was supposed to be?

Jaye wasn't the only one wondering that. "Miss White?" Madam Baba Yaga asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is there something you need?"

White's expression shifted to one of almost relief - not exactly the usual reaction to having to go talk to Baba Yaga - and she immediately shifted directions and hurried over to her. "I have this for you," she said in her usual irritatingly chipper tone, withdrawing a folder from the notebook she'd been clutching protectively to her chest and handing it over. Jaye couldn't see it clearly from where she was sitting, but the powder blue color reminded her of the time she'd needed... to transfer into...

Oh, no. No no no no no. This was _not_ happening. Since Queen had dropped the class to embark on her little quest to rehabilitate her image, this was supposed to be her refuge from the ridiculous Royal/Rebel nonsense. Princess Perfection was not part of that plan.

Baba Yaga's eyebrow only rose higher as she accepted the folder. "And why, precisely, are you here?"

White drew in a breath to answer, hesitated, then let it out slowly. "It's... complicated," she said, grimacing daintily. How she managed _that_ contradiction, exactly, Jaye wasn't sure she even wanted to know. "The short answer would be: Raven."

Baba Yaga blinked, then clapped her hands and cackled with delight. "Forcing her fairytale princess to attend a class for villains? How wonderlandifully wicked of her!"

White beamed. "I know! It's the closest she's come yet to finally embracing her destiny." Her smile collapsed as she added, "But... that still means I'm stuck here for a semester." She drew herself up. "But if that's what it takes to ensure that our story goes forward the way it should, then I'll do it!"

Jaye rolled her eyes, having a sneaking suspicion she'd be doing that frequently as the semester went on. _Ugh. Gag me._

True to form, White was _still_ talking. "I asked, but the person at the sign up desk didn't know what books I might be needing for the class." She sounded mostly apologetic, but also mildly put out. The former was only common sense for someone showing up to one of Baba Yaga's classes in any way unprepared, while the latter...? Well, if that Rasputin kid was still manning the table, Jaye could understand. He was exactly the sort of guy who'd lie right to your face about not being able to give you the much needed information he was supposed to, just to get you in trouble.

He'd stopped doing that to Jaye after having to dodge a few of her fireballs.

Fortunately for White, Baba Yaga clearly also knew who she had working for her, because her sole reaction was to hand the blonde a list of what she'd need. "Here. The only one you'll need for tomorrow is Dumont's _Spells and Curses_ , but I suggest you have them all by the end of the week. Now, take a seat. I was just giving out our first assignment."

Nodding agreeably, White turned, scanned the room... and promptly began heading for Jaye's desk.

"Oh, happy day," she muttered acerbically under her breath. Whoever after had she royally ticked off to be forced to endure this?

Fortunately, Madam Yaga turned on the large monitor behind her and pulled up a video of the Enchanted Forest, then began speaking before White could do more than sit down. "I'd like each of you to go into the Enchanted Forest and find an animal..."

"That should be easy enough," White said, quietly enough that Jaye realized the girl was talking _to her_ , meaning she hadn't dodged that particular cursed arrow after all. "Animals love me! The minute I walk into the forest, they start converging on me."

Jaye rolled her eyes again. Yep, she thought, that was definitely going to become a thing.

"...and turn it _evil_ ," Madam Yaga finished gleefully.

White deflated. "...oh."

Jaye smirked. She couldn't quite help it... and didn't bother trying.

White had barely managed to collect herself when Baba Yaga told the class to gather up their belongings and prepare for an expedition to the Enchanted Forest. "Wh- Now? But... But I haven't had a chance to go... book shopping, or anything..." It was, at least, a legitimate objection.

Baba Yaga barely spared her a glance. "Miss Black, you'll share your copy of _Spells and Curses_ for today."

Jaye quietly seethed. Was it Baba Yaga that had cursed her, then? She couldn't think of anything she might have done to annoy her teacher, but there was no question that the woman knew - and loved - her curses. She'd ask later, just in case. She owed dire retribution to whoever after was responsible, but she needed to be _sure_ of her target. Going after Baba Yaga was a daunting prospect already, but for something she hadn't done...?

Yeah, no. That was pretty much suicidal.

White turned to blink at her, and Jaye realized her grace period of being able to try and ignore the girl was over. "Wait, your name's-"

"Jaye," she sighed as she stood up. "Jaye Black. And if you even think about making any "cute" comments about our names, _**I will make you regret it**_."

White jerked slightly, apparently taken aback... though not much. Maybe she'd practiced dealing with short-tempered and homicidal people in preparation for rooming with her future Evil Queen. Who knew? Or, for that matter, cared? "Um, o-okay. Well, I'm-"

"I know who you are, White," Jaye interrupted, following the rest of the class toward the door. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner Princess Prissypants would go away. " _Everyone_ knows who you are."

"That doesn't excuse me from the obligation of making a proper introduction," she said primly, and Jaye was starting to feel an ache in her jaw from gritting her teeth so tightly. She made herself unclench before she started shattering any of them. "And I don't know you. Which story are you from?"

"Some of us don't have a story, White."

"Oh. Um, I'm... sorry...?" She sounded uncertain, so at least she wasn't automatically assuming that everybody _wanted_ a destiny to pledge themselves to.

"Don't be."

"You can call me Apple, you know."

"I can do a lot of things. Like set you on fire."

The implied threat washed right over White without making a dent in her positive attitude. Evidently, she didn't rattle easily. (Of course, Jaye didn't impress easily, so that didn't really mean all that much to her.) That, or she was just too airheaded to register it. Jaye would believe either one, really. "You have magic, too?"

"Yeah." Fortunately, the halls were empty aside from the Home Evilnomics students, or she knew they would have been drawing _**a lot**_ of confused stares as to why the school's golden girl was walking around with a crowd of future villains. She _really_ didn't feel like dealing with that. "The closest I come to my last name having any kind of meaning is being a black mage, and I'm the first one in my family in ages." She didn't _enjoy_ talking about herself, per se, but she also didn't exactly mind it. Besides, how often did one get a chance to remind the school's elite that the lower classes were people, too? (Well, if White did manage to stick around for the whole semester, she supposed she'd get lots of chances, so she should probably pace herself, she decided.)

There was also the little fact that Baba Yaga had pretty much told her to work with White for today's class. If she didn't at least _try_ to get along with her, Madam Yaga might think she was being uncooperative, which could be potentially... _unpleasant_ for her. She could last for one period.

Probably.

"Oh," White said, sounding at least somewhat interested. She clearly recognized the term, so that was one thing Jaye didn't need to explain. There were so many different types of magic users - witches, wizards, mages, and fairies were only a drop in the bucket, and even they had multiple sub-classes each - that they'd be there all day if Jaye had to go through them all... and her patience wouldn't last _that_ long. "Does that translate well to, um, cursing animals?"

Jaye considered that. "It doesn't hurt it, I suppose. Magic that affects the mind is more of a white or red mage thing. Elemental magic is really more my game. But the spell we're using today doesn't require you to have any kind of magic at all. Madam Yaga never gives assignments to the whole class like this unless everyone is capable of doing it."

They'd made it outside the school by this point, and were following the path toward the Enchanted Forest. "Well, that's... fair of her, at least." White didn't sound terribly thrilled, though. Obviously, she wasn't at all looking forward to cursing one of her little animal friends.

If nothing else, watching her squirm would provide enough enjoyment to compensate for having to deal with her at all.

There wasn't much more in the way of conversation on the way to the forest, which was just as well. Even if she needed to play nice, Jaye had her limits. The longer it took for her to reach them, the better. When they reached the Enchanted Forest, Jaye simply gestured toward the woods and said, "Alright, Princess, do your stuff."

White blinked, evidently more from her comment than the fact that the entire class was now looking at her. Being the center of attention was something she was no doubt used to. "What happens to the animals afterward?" she wondered as she walked into the forest proper, the others following at a slight distance so as not to spook the animals. (Turning them evil might have been new, but they had needed to collect specimens from the Enchanted Forest before - also from the Dark Forest, which Jaye preferred, honestly - so they knew to be careful in that respect. They also knew collection tended to be a lengthy process - their fastest time so far was two hours, and that had been sheer luck.)

Jaye honestly had no idea what became of their animals post-experiment, and had never really cared. Fortunately - if only because it prevented any kind of righteously indignant response and made sure White kept cooperating - someone else did. "Baba Yaga takes them to the Good Magic Mastery classroom, so the Fairy Queen can show her students how to lift evil curses," Erica said with a shrug. "So look at it as you helping the "good" students and get back to work."

Erica Fell was probably Jaye's best friend, by virtue of being one of her _only_ friends. (If anyone ever asked about her last name, she would proudly point out that it traced its meaning back to the adjective definition of the word: of terrible evil or ferocity; deadly.) Truthfully, making friends did not happen very easily among the evil (or even semi-evil) students, and not just because most people were afraid of them, or just avoided them completely. No, it was the ruthlessness, ambition, and drive to accomplish one's own goals by any cost. (She didn't like the term selfishness, but she supposed it fit.) Had one of her evil classmates started being nice to her, she would have known _immediately_ that they were up to something and trying to trick her, stab her in the back (literally or metaphorically), or use her for something. Ironically, she and Erica were friends because they had _almost nothing_ in common. Erica had no magic at all, unlike Jaye. Erica's favorite (non-villainous) class was History of Tall Tales, while Jaye had _hated_ that one when she'd been stuck in there. (Unlike the princesses, she didn't get to just transfer into or out of classes on a whim. It had taken _work_ to get out of that one.) Erica preferred plots and schemes that no one knew about until it was too late, while Jaye preferred the direct approach. (What could she say? Wreaking havoc with her magic was just more _fun_ than politics and meetings and all that boring governmental nonsense Erica liked so much. Erica being part of the Student Council meant she had _two_ classes with White, now, which Jaye thought just proved that hers was the way to go.) Because of those schemes, Erica was naturally the more social of the two - though most people _knowing_ that she was a corrupt government official in the making meant they were understandably wary around her, and obviously weren't about to try becoming friends with her - while Jaye typically only went places when Erica dragged her out to them, and would rather curl up with a good book or be practicing her magic. It wasn't like she was going to be dating, after all. Not since-

No, she wasn't thinking about that. She _refused_ to think about _any_ of that. (Though she still appreciated Erica helping her enact a more subtle kind of vengeance than she would have typically engaged in. A certain someone that she was _not_ thinking about hadn't seen it coming at all.)

While she _hadn't_ been thinking about that, White had apparently accepted Erica's explanation and 'gotten back to work', as requested... not that she'd ever actually stopped. She'd taken Erica's attitude in stride, too, possibly due to knowing her from the Student Council. She passed some kind of invisible boundary line in the forest, and seconds later a squirrel was bounding up to her. Followed by several more. A fox. A ferret. Three rabbits. More and more animals, until there were dozens of the things.

For a moment, Jaye just stared. (So did the rest of her classmates, so she didn't feel too bad about that.) It wasn't like she wasn't aware of the "Princess Adoration Phenomenon" displayed by most woodland creatures, so she wasn't surprised by that part. She'd even seen it in action before, though not up close like she was now. This kind of response time, though, was fairly unheard of, as far as she knew, to say nothing of the size of the crowd she'd gathered. Was that connected to the strength and/or popularity of her story? Maybe there was some kind of correlation between how beloved the princess's story was and how much the animals adored her? She was honestly tempted to conduct some kind of research to try and find out... until she realized that doing so would mean voluntarily spending an unknown amount of time with not only White, but some of her fellow princesses, and without even something like turning the animals evil as an end goal.

She promptly pushed the thought out of her mind, and set to selecting an animal.

Her classmates were already doing so, the creatures still oddly docile. Even putting them into the cages Baba Yaga had supplied them with didn't seem to raise much of any alarm. Because White was still there? And if so, would taking them out of her presence alter the animals' temperament? Another interesting experiment, and this time one that would entail going _away_ from the blonde. She picked up a squirrel and gently secured it in her cage, perfectly happy to let someone else find out if treating them roughly would provoke them to break free of White's calming influence.

Erica, having claimed a ferret, wandered over to her. "I have to admit, she's kind of handy to have around, sometimes," she said, gesturing toward White, who was crouched down (somehow avoiding getting any dirt on her dress), cooing at the rabbits. Was she deliberately avoiding looking back to see her animal friends being captured? Or just distracted by the bunnies? Neither option would exactly improve Jaye's opinion of her.

"Sometimes," she agreed. Whether she liked White or not, this was easily the fastest specimen capture in the history of Home Evilnomics. "Feel free to suggest to Madam Yaga that she should make using a princess as a lure a standard part of the collection process. Might help her forget about that little comment you made last week."

"She took that totally out of context," Erica defended.

"No, I really don't think she did. Saying someone would make good plant fertilizer only has so many potential meanings."

"You know full well that I meant she could use some of the things in her store of potion ingredients to make a better fertilizer than the school currently uses!"

"Uh-huh."

"So, anyway," Erica began, blatantly changing the subject, "what should we do now? We're not hexpected to have our specimens until tomorrow's class, since it usually takes so long to get them. Wanna go back now and get it over with, or have something of a free period and bring in our hexperiments tomorrow?"

"Honestly, I just want to get this over with," Jaye replied. "Then I can go back to ignoring- What the hex is she doing?" She looked on in disbelief as White continued stroking the rabbit she'd apparently picked up when Jaye hadn't been looking.

"I stopped asking myself that question a _long_ time ago."

Well, that was fine for Erica. She could get away with it. Jaye was the one who'd been more or less assigned as White's temporary lab partner. Madam Yaga would _not_ be pleased if she let the girl bring a cute little bunny rabbit back with her. Grumbling to herself under her breath - and ignoring Erica's muttered comment about how 'the more things changed...', whatever _that_ meant - she stalked over to White, having to be careful not to step on any of the animals, which were more numerous the closer she got. "White," she snapped.

"Hmm?" White replied absently.

"What. The hex. Are you _**doing**_?"

If nothing else, the genuine anger in her tone at least caught White's attention. She blinked in confusion, then stood up, still holding the rabbit. "Um, I'm petting a bunny?" she said, as if wondering why Jaye would be asking something with such an obvious answer.

"You are _not_ bringing that back with you," Jaye said flatly. "No one is going to be able to take an evil _bunny rabbit_ seriously." She didn't know or care if Baba Yaga would accept _any_ animal being turned evil or not, _she_ had her pride!

"Oh, I wasn't planning on it," White assured her breezily. "I mean, come on, how could I turn this cute little guy evil? Look at him!" She held the rabbit out toward Jaye.

Jaye sighed, then reluctantly reached out and very briefly pet the bunny. It wasn't like she was _immune_ to the cuteness of the thing, though she had no intention of letting White know that if she could help it. "Fine, it's adorable. Now grab an animal so we can get back to the school and get _on_ with this, already."

With an agonized expression on her face, White put the rabbit down as requested, then looked around the small clearing they were in. The rest of the class - including Erica - had already begun heading back, leaving the two of them alone with the critter brigade. She looked from one animal to another, clearly unwilling to choose any of them... then froze, attention captured by something down in the brush. She gasped, face lighting up, and proclaimed, "Oh, you're perfect!"

Jaye followed her gaze, eyebrows shooting up as she realized what White had seen. Well, she decided, this would be interesting, if nothing else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** _Ever After High_ is owned by Mattel.

 **Author's Note:** So, you can see why I decided to split this part into two chapters, right? (Also, comments are always appreciated. ^_^)

* * *

Class Confusion Redux (part 2)

Apple was pleasantly surprised to find that Home Evilnomics wasn't _quite_ as bad as she'd been afraid that it would be. That wasn't to say that she was at all enjoying herself, just that she was pretty sure that she could handle it.

Of course, this was only their first assignment, on the first day...

No, she told herself. No negativity. She could do this. She could _totally_ do this. She was going to pass Home Evilnomics (hopefully with a good grade, otherwise she'd have to just hope that her mother saw getting Raven back on the evil path as being worth the hit to her GPA), find a way to get Raven to be her Evil Queen, their story would resume, she'd get her Happily Ever After and ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in her kingdom, and everything would finally be back to normal...

"Miss White, what, precisely, is supposed to be _evil_ about that animal?"

...if she could just get past Baba Yaga, first.

Their teacher had been surprised, to say the least, to see them coming back into the classroom maybe ten minutes after they'd left - and most of that had been travel time to and from the Enchanted Forest. To her credit, she'd been perfectly willing to let them get to work, despite the assignment not being due until tomorrow, at the earliest. (Apple had personally not had _any_ problem with waiting, even less so if it meant not disrupting her teacher's lesson plans. Apparently, though, there really was no rest for the wicked.) "Oh, nothing," she said as she stroked the soft fur of the _adorable_ bunny parked on the table in front of her, eating a carrot. She gestured toward her cage, more toward the middle of the table, adding, " _That's_ my animal. This little guy just followed me back from the forest." While it wasn't something that happened often, that sort of thing wasn't without precedent, either. She'd hang onto him for now, then bring him to Ashlynn, or, failing that, Briar's younger cousin, Rosabella. One of them would be able to get the adorable little critter home.

Baba Yaga flipped open the latch on the cage door, pausing at the warning rattle that emerged from within. Being who she was, she didn't remain deterred for long, picking up the cage and dumping the rattlesnake out onto the table. Its rattle now going at a furious speed, it lunged at Baba Yaga. Apple momentarily froze - because, really, _that_ hadn't been what she'd had in mind - but whether or not Baba Yaga's body was fast enough to deal with that, her _magic_ clearly was. The snake abruptly froze in the air in mid-strike, mouth wide open, fangs glistening with poison. Madam Yaga eyed it, then turned her gaze upon Apple.

 _Stay calm_ , she told herself, barely holding herself back from a nervous gulp. She might not have expected the attack, but she _had_ worked out what to say on the walk back from the forest, so if she stuck to that, she should _probably_ be okay. She hoped. "I left it in the cage for everyone else's safety," she explained. The etiquette lessons had drilled into her since she'd been old enough to understand that she'd be Queen one day came to her rescue, letting her say that in a perfectly normal, almost casual tone. Not so much as a hint of her anxiety could be seen.

Baba Yaga made a thoughtful sound, then examined the frozen snake more closely. "You don't _quite_ seem to have turned this snake _evil_ ," she finally remarked.

"But I went through every part of the spell carefully, step by step!" Apple protested. Technically speaking, it was true, she had. She just hadn't _done_ any of them. Jaye had made it clear that if she tried pulling something over on Madam Yaga and got caught, she was on her own. Apple would never have tried shifting the blame for her own actions - or inactions, as the case might have been - onto someone else, so she'd agreed with that readily. Jaye had then remarked that it was a good thing she wasn't taking General Villainy with Mr. Badwolf, as nobility and honesty wouldn't go over big there.

(She'd also explained as they were going over the spell that it was far too simple to work on a being as physically and emotionally complex as a person, had Apple been thinking of trying something like that on Raven. She hadn't, naturally, but it was good to know that she had a ready excuse, should anyone ever ask her why she wasn't doing so.)

"That may be, but if the animal is already evil or just bad-tempered enough to start with, the spell won't work," Baba Yaga told her.

"It didn't say anything about that anywhere in the pages about the spell." Again, _technically_ true. A warning about that _was_ listed in the book's intro section, and Jaye had even pointed it out, saying Baba Yaga _would_ bring that up. But since Apple would have had no reason to think to look there on her own...

Baba Yaga studied her for a good ten seconds. "Miss White, either you tried turning an animal evil on your first day of any villainy class ever and only failed due to being drawn to one already too evil to suit your purposes," she finally began, "or you're lying to me about what may well have been an attempt at killing me. Either way, I _entirely_ approve!"

"..." Apple honestly wasn't sure what to say in response to that. A quick peek showed that Jaye looked more bemused than anything.

"Still, that doesn't hexcuse you from doing this assignment properly," Baba Yaga continued.

Apple hadn't really expected it to. (Hoped, yes. But she knew enough about Baba Yaga not to count on it.) "I've been reliably informed that _no one_ would be able to take an evil bunny rabbit seriously." She didn't actually look at Jaye as she said it, but she thought it was pretty obvious who would have been the one to tell her that.

"Hmm, true, true. It wouldn't matter for the purposes of your grade, but I can see how that might be a concern. Fortunately, the assignment isn't actually due until tomorrow, which gives you plenty of time to find a more suitable subject."

More like it would give her more time to think of something else to do, she thought. (That had been the whole point of this exercise, after all: buying more time.) That, unfortunately, was easier said than done. Nothing came to her during the rest of class, during which, with no other real work scheduled, Baba Yaga wistfully reviewed some of the evil spells she'd performed during some of her stories. (It had actually been somewhat interesting, if horrifying, and Apple couldn't help but wonder if someone else might be reenacting those, some day. What determined which stories did or didn't get added to the Storybook of Legends?) Nothing came to her during any of her other classes. Nothing came to her during lunch, or any of her trips to her locker to exchange books. When classes were over for the day?

That nothing kept right on coming.

Naturally, she once again didn't let any of that show on her face. As she'd reflected earlier, she was the Queen-to-be and future Snow White, which meant that she always had to present a composed front, with doubts and fears expressed in private, if they had to be at all. Her mother had been _**very**_ clear on that over the years. Unfortunately, when she got back to her dorm room, she found she wouldn't be alone there, either. But she could let down her defenses _a little_ around Raven, right? They were friends... even if Raven's attempt at finding someone else to take her place in their story said they weren't very _close_ friends, at least on Raven's side.

That whole debacle still stung Apple. Not only had Raven immediately latched onto the idea of shoving her destiny at the first person who came along, one of the three pigs - the pig part wouldn't necessarily have bothered Apple, but her story called for an evil queen, not an evil title-less guy with no magic and no connection to her at all - but said pig hadn't even made it half the school day before ditching his "dream" of being an evil queen for one about being a "balloonatic". For all that Maddie had said Raven was trying to find someone to be the new Evil Queen to make her happy, to Apple it had come across more as Raven saying "Well, _this_ should shut her up and get her to stop bothering me." She hadn't even attempted to find anything to say to Raven after the little guy had floated away, instead turning and leaving without a word so she could follow along and be ready for when he drifted back down to earth. Just because she was hurt, that didn't make it okay for her to allow anything to happen to him. (She was pretty sure Raven _still_ didn't understand why she'd been so upset.)

Of course, Raven wasn't exactly likely to have noticed anything in her expression, right then. Evidently, when she'd gotten back from her last class, Raven had just flopped face down on her bed and stayed there. "So, how was Princessology?" Apple asked, dropping her bookbag on her own bed and walking over to sit down next to Raven. She wasn't the only one who'd been out of her element today, after all.

"Oww..." Raven rolled over to stare at the ceiling, a pained look on her face. "My cheeks _still_ hurt."

"Not so easy, is it?" Apple had to ask. A number of people - Raven among them - had made comments over the years about how _**easy**_ Apple's life was, how people did everything for her, how she never had to work for anything. Like she just went around smiling like a beauty queen for no reason other than inviting praise. At least some of her friends knew better, like Briar. She'd regretted not being able to room with her BFFA this year, but had viewed rooming with Raven and getting to know her future Evil Queen as more important. If anything, Raven's refusal of her destiny made it doubly important.

"How do you _do_ that all the time? I mean, I smile often enough, but not like _that_."

"That was one of the many, many things Mom had me start practicing when I was a little kid," Apple said with a shrug, eyes briefly going distant in memory... and missing the concerned frown that flitted across Raven's face. "The way she hexplained it, the muscles that you use to smile are just like any of the others: they need to be developed. It's sort of like jogging every morning to be ready to run a marathon. As princesses, we might be hexpected to attend ribbon cutting ceremonies, tournaments, be in parades, and other such activities. As such, we'll have to be smiling for long stretches of time. If we start frowning or looking like we're in pain, it could reflect badly on our kingdoms, and someone else might try to take political advantage of that. _That's_ what smiling practice is about: making sure your smile looks perfect, yes, but also hexercising your cheek muscles to make sure you'll be pain-free when the time comes."

Raven's eyebrows rose. "Huh. Never really thought about it like that, before."

"Guess that sort of thing's not part of the Evil Queen curriculum?"

"Heh. To put it mildly." She sat up, turning her full attention on Apple. "Speaking of, how'd Home Evilnomics go?"

Apple hesitated momentarily, not immediately sure how to answer that. "Our first assignment was to get an animal from the Enchanted Forest and turn it evil."

"And how did that go?" Raven asked, her expression carefully neutral.

"For the most part, okay." She hesitated again, then told Raven about what she'd done. "Baba Yaga seemed weirdly _happy_ about the idea that I might have tried to kill her," she remarked once she was finished, unable to hide her confusion.

A small, fond smile crept onto Raven's face. "She would be. She might encourage those students who have an evil destiny to follow it, but she hardly discourages everyone else from the path of evil." She shook her head. "So, what are you going to do?"

Apple sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've been thinking about it all day, and I still haven't been able to make a decision. I suppose if worse comes to worst, I can just... do it. Erica said that the newly evil animals are brought to the Good Magic Mastery class so the students there can lift the curses. I do know who she is at least a little from Student Council, so I wasn't going to automatically believe that, but I checked with Farrah, and she confirmed it." And no one who knew her at all would really doubt the given word of Farrah Goodfairy. "I hate the thought of doing something like that to a poor, innocent little animal, but it would only be temporary, and Farrah swears they don't remember a thing afterward. I just..."

"Can't bring yourself to do it?" Raven finished for her when she trailed off, and Apple nodded wordlessly. "Not so easy, is it?" Raven echoed.

"I never said that I thought it was easy," Apple countered. "Just that it was necessary." She shook her head, not wanting to start a fight. "Look, if you're not taking any villain classes this semester, do you have a copy of Dumont's _Spells and Curses_ I can borrow? I have a list of books to find, but that's the only one I need to have by tomorrow, and I'm honestly not sure if that would be in any nearby bookstores." She planned to order as many online as she could, so nobody would see her buying any of them and ask questions - or worse, spread rumors. She hardly expected the fact that she was taking a villainy class to continue going unnoticed, but the longer she could put that off, the better.

"I put all the evil tomes and spell books in a chest in my closet," Raven told her. "I'd planned on sending them back home - some of them are too dangerous to just throw out - but if any of them are on your list, help yourself."

"Thanks, roomie!" Apple chirped, giving her a big hug. Raven didn't say anything, but her smile was answer enough. (Especially since her cheeks had to still hurt doing that.) Apple kept it up a bit longer, then let go and hurried over to her bed to grab the list from her bag before heading for the chest.

It was her lucky day (though what kind of luck was debatable). If only because she'd taken that class herself previously, Raven had almost every book on the list. (The only one missing, something called the _Necronomicon_ , was listed as "optional", so Apple decided not to worry about that one right then.) She carried her haul back into the room and spread them out on her bed, then sat next to them to look through them and see what her options were. Replacing one evil spell with another didn't exactly seem like a good thing, but they were the only magic books she had to work with. (Also, she was worried that if she tried using any good magic in class, Baba Yaga might just flunk her on general principle.) As much as she knew she needed to focus on her searching, though, she still had to ask, "Why do we need _six_ books for this class?"

"The sixty-six spells, curses, and such that you'll need are spread out through them," Raven told her. A quick look showed that she'd moved over to her desk, presumably to get started on her own thronework. "Not sure why they don't just condense all that into one book. It's probably either proprietary issues on some of the spells, or Baba Yaga just likes it that way."

Six books and sixty-six... Yeah, Apple decided that was one subject she was better off leaving alone. She never would have thought there were so _many_ evil spells and curses, she mused as she began searching through the books. Some of them seemed to overlap, achieving the same end result - more or less - with differences ranging from minor to severe in how they got there. One of the books had three separate sleeping curses, one of which, she saw, was the one from her story. She couldn't help but briefly pause in her search as she studied that one. It was far more complex than she might have guessed, and was designed to leave as little room for escape as possible, with no known antidotes except for True Love's Kiss, which the book noted was capable of breaking most any curse.

She'd leave off the curses, she decided. The point of all this was to _not_ have to curse one of her animal friends, after all, and most of the possible alternatives she found were worse than the one she was trying to avoid. Spells could be harder, as a number of them required one to have magic of their own to perform them. Most of the rest weren't terribly helpful, either - how would summoning up a plague of locusts help her pass an assignment to turn an animal evil? Potions, charms, amulets... Nothing she was finding would help. Finally, after much futile searching, she sat back, massaging her forehead. She wasn't sure how long she'd been looking, but it must have been longer than she'd thought: her stomach was starting to growl, her throat was dry, and a dull throbbing had started up somewhere behind her eyes. (Some of the text in that last book - she wasn't sure what language those pages were written in, never having seen it before - had been oddly headache-inducing all by itself, which wasn't helping matters any.)

Either she'd made some noise, or Raven had been watching her, as her roommate remarked, "You know, you can wear your glasses, if you need to. I've already seen you in them, and nobody else is here."

Despite everything, Apple had to smile. She knew she probably shouldn't encourage such kindness from Raven if she wanted the other girl to be her Evil Queen, but she couldn't help it. (She also still wasn't in the mood to start a fight.) "I don't need them anymore, actually, but thank you."

"Oh? Why's that?"

Should she explain? Well, she hadn't been sworn to secrecy or anything, so why not? "Did you know there's a whole class dedicated to just healing magic?" she began.

"It's on my "If I can ever get my magic under control, I am _SO_ taking this class" list," Raven replied with a small smile. She'd evidently finished whatever she'd been working on - making Apple again wonder how long she'd been lost in her research - and had turned around in her desk chair to face her roommate.

"I hadn't known there were enough people at school whose magic could be used to heal to justify it, but apparently there are. One of them being Farrah."

"Ah. I was wondering why you would have gone right to her to ask about a class you wouldn't have known she'd be taking, given that I've never really seen - or heard about - you two hanging out." Raven paused, then frowned as something occurred to her. "Wait, doesn't her magic usually only last until midnight?"

"Or noon, whichever comes first," Apple confirmed. "Or, at least, her fairy glamours do. Not sure if there are any restrictions to her healing magic, but what she _did_ was conjure up some kind of device and use _that_ to fix my eyes. It was her Final, actually." It was Apple's turn to frown. "I still don't know how she even _knew_ that there was something wrong with my eyes. All she said when I asked was, "Future fairy godmothers just _know_ things like that." Which was a little odd, given that you know as well as I do that our story doesn't _have_ a fairy godmother anywhere in it, but since she was doing me a favor, I didn't push her on it." Maybe Farrah had meant they had some kind of sixth sense about what a person needed help with? Ultimately, she supposed it didn't matter.

"I have to admit, that was pretty clever of her," Raven said. "I didn't know fairy magic could do that sort of thing."

"Neither did I. The Fairy Queen was pretty impressed."

"I can see why." Raven paused, then changed the subject. "So, how goes the search?"

"It could be better," Apple admitted. "Though, since I haven't figured out what I want to do, yet, I've mainly been looking for inspiration." And not finding it. "Was the whole "turning animals evil" thing something you had to do when you were taking this class?" she asked abruptly.

Raven sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I wound up with a... badger, I think it was. I hated everything to do with that assignment, so I just tried really hard not to think about any of it. I'm glad to know the little guy was uncursed later on. I kinda thought Baba Yaga just... dumped them in the Dark Forest, or something. With all the evil animals in there, who'd notice a few more?"

Apple had been glancing idly at one of her books, but at that she whipped around to face Raven again so quickly that she felt a twinge in her neck and had to swat her hair away from her face. "There are animals in the Dark Forest that are already evil?" she asked urgently.

Raven was able to follow her train of thought easily enough. "Not all of them are - I'm not sure it's even most of them - but yes, some, at least. I thought about getting one of them and trying to pass it off as my project, but while the school won't stop students from going into the Dark Forest, they do watch to make sure you don't bring anything dangerous out with you."

"Yeah, that was... actually a decision the Student Council made," Apple said, fighting down the urge to facepalm. It had made perfect sense at the time - it still did, really - but it wasn't really helping her right then. She still thought she was onto something, though, so she'd just need to find a way around that little rule. It was for a villain class, so that was appropriate, right?

Right, she told herself.

There were other problems to be dealt with, of course. Home Evilnomics was early enough in the day that, if she wanted to find an appropriate animal, she'd have to do so that evening, and searching the Dark Forest at night - by herself, no less - trying to find an evil animal would be foolish and incredibly dangerous. "How well do you know the Dark Forest?" she asked. If Raven had hated doing the assignment herself so much, surely she'd be willing to help Apple come up with a workaround, wouldn't she? Sure, it wouldn't exactly be helping the cause of trying to convince Raven to be more evil - really, if anything, it would be doing the opposite - but this was only the first day. She had plenty of time, yet. If she pushed too hard too quickly, she'd just end up making sure Raven wouldn't be able to approach the situation logically enough to see reason.

"Not very," Raven told her, which really wasn't what she wanted to hear. "You'd have better luck with someone who would have learned their way around there in preparation for their story, like Cerise or Blondie."

Apple blinked. "Cerise?" She was pretty sure the future Red Riding Hood was firmly in the Rebel camp, though she wasn't quite sure why, given that her story would be giving her a Happily Ever After.

"I'm not sure _how_ well she knows the forest, but she'd be a lot better equipped to anything hostile you might come across than Blondie would," Raven said, which was true enough. As much as Blondie was one of Apple's friends, her main defensive tactic would be running away. Smart when it came to not being eaten by a gruesome creature in the Dark Forest, not terribly helpful when it came to fighting and/or capturing one of them.

"Would she be willing to help me, though?" Raven was one of only two Rebels that Apple could really say she was friends with, the other being Ashlynn. (Assuming she really counted. It certainly seemed like she'd defected for love, but they _were_ only in high school, so who knew if her relationship would last? Apple didn't want to see any of her friends get hurt, but she also didn't know what the future held, and Ashlynn didn't seem overly bothered by any part of her story _aside_ from that.) She liked Hunter well enough, even despite him placing Ashlynn and everyone in her story in danger, but they'd never really spent any time hanging out even before the Royal/Rebel split. Maddie was nice, if odd, and she clearly wanted to follow in her father's footsteps, making her presence on the Rebel side confusing. Presumably, she was just there to support Raven. As for Cerise? She and Apple knew each other, but that was about as far as it went. Apple couldn't even remember the last time she'd spoken directly to the hooded girl.

"I can't guarantee it, obviously, but I think so," Raven said with a shrug. "She generally likes to help, and I doubt she'd mind helping you try to pull one over on Baba Yaga - especially when it would mean uncursing an already evil animal."

Apple had to admit, the thought that she might be able to help reduce the number of evil animals with what she was doing, even if only by one, was rather appealing. She even had an idea about how to go about smuggling it out of the forest, if they could find an appropriate animal. She'd have a lot of work to do in order to gather up all the materials she was going to need, and even then it wouldn't be even remotely easy to pull off.

But then, as her father often said, "Nothing worth doing is easy."

* * *

Jaye hated to admit it, but part of her was honestly curious to see what White had come up with.

The simplest - and quite possibly smartest - thing for her to do would be to simply find another animal and use the spell to turn it evil, like she was supposed to. Considering how opposed she'd been to doing so yesterday, however, Jaye doubted that would be happening. (Why White wouldn't just do it when she _knew_ the animal would be fine afterward, Jaye honestly couldn't understand.) Another attempted deception? Possible, but given that the snake hadn't fooled Baba Yaga even for a second, White would have to seriously step up her game, and Jaye wasn't sure she had it in her. Most of the spells that would help her even _try_ to pull something like that off required the one casting them to have magic of their own, and the rest called for ingredients that she highly doubted the pure and innocent White would be able to bring herself to even _touch_ , let alone use.

So she had no idea what was going to happen. It had been a while since that had occurred - even if she didn't know what they were going to be covering that day in any of her classes, she had a solid enough grasp of the course that whatever it turned out to be didn't really surprise her - and she found herself actually looking forward to finding out the answer.

Naturally, she kept that to herself.

White had clearly settled on _some_ kind of plan, that was for sure. When Jaye walked into the Home Evilnomics classroom - to her mild annoyance, White's belongings were sitting on her usual table, again - White had curtained off a good chunk of the front of the room, not far from Baba Yaga's desk. "She was already back there before any of us got here," Erica murmured as Jaye passed by her table. "I'm not sure Madam Yaga even beat her here."

Jaye made a thoughtful noise as she continued on to her own table. Technically, no one should have even been _able_ to get into the room before Baba Yaga took down the protective spells that she used to keep everyone out when she wasn't around. She might have kept most of her sensitive and dangerous magical items in her hut, but there was enough in the classroom to warrant precautions like that. White had to have gotten some kind of help in order to bypass them, but why bother when she could just walk into the classroom when the rest of them did?

Reluctantly, Jaye had to admit: her curiosity was officially piqued.

When the whole class was present and White still showed no signs of getting on with... _whatever_ she was doing, Baba Yaga finally prompted, "Miss White...?"

"One more minute," White's oddly almost pained-sounding voice replied. "Just getting ready to cast a really _evil_ spell, here."

Jaye tended to doubt that, but _something_ was clearly going on back there: Jaye could sense some kind of magic rising, cold and precise, and Billy the Goblin's nose was flaring the way it always did when he smelled blood. That combination suggested some kind of ritual, but if White had balked at casting a simple spell to turn an animal evil, what kind of dark ritual could she have found that she'd consider an acceptable alternative?

Well, they were about to find out. The magic Jaye was sensing spiked, and the air seemed to almost vibrate somehow, for a few seconds. Both quickly faded away, then were gone. Shortly after that, White pulled back the curtain, proclaiming, "Ta-da!" Most of the class didn't seem to notice that, however.

They were a little too preoccupied with the _massive_ brown bear standing next to her.

Even on all fours, it was almost as tall as White herself. Its eyes were glowing a baleful red, an almost subsonic growl was emanating from within its chest, and it was sweeping its gaze around the room, as if trying to figure out who had brought it to where it was, and thus who needed to be killed. Why it wasn't tearing White apart on general principle, Jaye wasn't sure. The bear stood up on its hind legs - effectively doubling its already huge size - let out a savage roar loud enough to cause people to flinch in pain outside the school, and promptly launched itself at Baba Yaga.

Jaye was barely aware of White's exasperated "Oh, _come on_!" - though when she looked back on it later, she would admit to finding White's poor luck where her animals were concerned rather amusing - her attention locked on the oversized ursa.

Fortunately, however huge and outright evil it may have been, Madam Yaga was able to freeze it in place as easily as she had the rattlesnake the previous day. She studied the bear for a moment, then turned and raised an eyebrow at White.

Jaye had to admit, White hid whatever anxiety she must have been feeling flawlessly. "I didn't tell it to do that," she insisted.

Similarly, Baba Yaga gave no sign whether she believed White or not, instead simply indicating where the bear had been standing with a gesture and asking, "And that?"

Now that the bear wasn't in the way, anymore, Jaye was able to get a good look at what White had been doing... and felt her own eyebrows shoot up underneath her bangs as she recognized enough components to start figuring it out. "Well, I obviously couldn't bring it in through the front door," White said with a simple shrug, as if performing a Level 20 ritual by herself was something one just _did_. The more Jaye studied the purple sigils she could see from where she was sitting, the more she was impressed.

And as she'd noted to herself the previous day, she didn't impress easily.

Arranging to magically transport something into a carefully prepared circle would have been difficult enough, but White had gone beyond that. If Jaye was remembering correctly - she'd seen the ritual White must have used in Byrne's aptly-named _Rites and Rituals_ , though she'd only glanced at it once while she'd been seeking out something else entirely - the ritual could indeed send whatever was inside one circle to its twin, but once that connection was formed, the caster could use whatever item they'd linked to each circle to send something - even themselves - to _either_ circle, from anywhere. And after the blood offering to power each one up (Jaye could see the bandaging wrapped around White's left hand), they would _stay_ powered up, until they were forcibly dismantled. Even washing away the ink or paint White had used wouldn't matter.

It was rather overkill for something like this assignment, but given her lack of any kind of magic of her own, Jaye knew White's options had been limited, and this at least wouldn't tie her to any dark entities.

"Miss White," Baba Yaga began at length, "I believe I recognize this animal from my own trips through the Dark Forest."

White momentarily froze. Given the control she'd displayed previously, Jaye interpreted that as her fighting down a burst of pure panic.

"I also recognize that you just performed a piece of magic that you absolutely shouldn't have been able to," Madam Yaga continued. "That particular ritual was far, far beyond your current level. And _another_ murder attempt, no less!"

White twitched. "But I _didn't_ -!"

"It's becoming clear that you have a real aptitude for this type of coursework, and tremendous potential." The genuine sincerity in her voice only seemed to be confusing White more. "I look forward to seeing you live up to it. B-Minus."

"Um... Thank.. you...?" White momentarily looked utterly lost, then gave her head a sharp shake before heading for her seat, seemingly back in full control of herself.

Jaye wasn't sure she bought that, but as far as she was concerned, if the purest and fairest princess of them all was told she'd make a great villain, she was allowed to be confused. If she didn't want to show it, that was one less thing Jaye would have to deal with. "Hmm," she mused quietly as Baba Yaga levitated the still-frozen bear out of the way so she could begin that day's lessons. "I may have misjudged you. This semester might just be more interesting than I hexpected it would."

White was silent for a thoughtful moment. "Does this mean you'll call me Apple, now?"

Jaye's lips twitched in response. "We'll see."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** _Ever After High_ is owned by Mattel.

 **Author's Note:** We won't be going through every single episode, but this _is_ another of the Apple-centric ones, so...

 **Author's Note 2:** Exactly how old are the main cast supposed to be? Thronecoming is based on Homecoming, after all, which usually takes place not long after the beginning of the school year (and I don't care what _Epic Winter_ wants us to think, the idea of the students being there over the summer is just ridiculous), meaning the _Thronecoming_ special would technically take place the school year after when the story's current events are happening. Is that their senior year? They do work on their yearbook...

* * *

Friendship and Cake

It was funny, really. Apple hadn't wanted to take Home Evilnomics at all, originally, but it was turning out to be one of only classes she was taking that actually challenged her. Admittedly, for her first project, that had been challenging her to find a way to complete her assignment without actually _doing_ said assignment. The next project, growing an evil plant, she had no problem with. It was something she'd never done before - really, she'd never been responsible for growing any plants at all before now, the gardeners back at home always taking care of that sort of thing before she could even try - and it made for an oddly refreshing change of pace. She'd never speak badly of any of her regular teachers, and she still enjoyed their classes, but, well... She'd done it all before. Maybe it was her own fault for always reading ahead, or taking an interest in the running of her kingdom while at home and learning all she could about how that worked, but she hadn't even been having to _try_ to maintain straight A's in all her classes for a while, now, and it had been a struggle not to become bored. (She'd said something about that to her mother, once, shortly before the school year started. It had been one of the rare times that Snow White, rather than lecture her, had actually commiserated with her daughter, having experienced much the same thing in high school, herself.) As evil as she was, Baba Yaga was also oddly endearing, in her own way, and she definitely knew how to make her lessons exciting and memorable. She wasn't nearly as enthused and engaged while teaching Dance Class-ic, and it was kind of nice to see what she was like when discussing a subject that actually mattered to her.

Oddly, Apple had actually learned more while working around her first Home Evilnomics assignment than she would have just doing it normally, like the rest of the class had. And not just in terms of the ritual needed to pull it off, either... though that _had_ been educational. There were step-by-step instructions on how to do it in _Rites and Rituals_ , and Raven, after reading through them, had confirmed that she wouldn't be tying herself to anything; the blood offering was a one-time payment. That part had still given Apple pause, but it had become clear by then that there was no other way to transport an evil animal from the Dark Forest to the school without anyone noticing, and she hadn't been raised to be squeamish.

She'd decided to create the circle in the Home Evilnomics classroom first. If she couldn't actually pull it off, there wouldn't be any point in engaging in an unauthorized excursion to the Dark Forest at all, would there? Getting in had been difficult all by itself, as Baba Yaga tended to magically secure the classroom to make sure no one could enter when she wasn't there. (Partly for student safety, as there were dangerous materials in there, and partly to make sure nobody saw her doing anything with those materials that she didn't want them to - she didn't perform _all_ her personal evil spellwork in her office/hut, after all.) Raven didn't have any idea how to disarm the wards, couldn't brute force her way through without making it clear to anyone and everyone what had happened, and was convinced that even trying to get past them would leave some kind of magical fingerprint that Baba Yaga would be able to pick up on. She'd mentioned that she'd had to leave shortly, as she planned on meeting Maddie for dinner, which had given Apple a burst of inspiration. She'd realized that there was one person she knew who could get past Madam Yaga's security spells by literally going around them: Kitty Cheshire.

Kitty, fortunately, had found the idea of pulling a prank on Baba Yaga _hilarious_ \- Apple had been careful in how she'd described what she wanted to do, and given the sometimes malicious approach to pranks that the Cheshire line traditionally took, she supposed dropping an evil animal into the middle of the Home Evilnomics class fit that description, so she hadn't argued - and that it was _Apple White_ , of all people, asking for her help in doing so had just made it impossible to resist. Kitty, who found magic rituals _incredibly_ boring to watch, hadn't hung around for very long after she'd materialized inside the classroom and opened the door - the wards were designed to keep people from breaking in, not from getting out - though she'd made Apple promise not to summon whatever animal she managed to find until Kitty could get there to watch. Desperately hoping it wouldn't be nearly as eventful as Kitty no doubt wanted, Apple had agreed.

Alas, that hope was not borne out.

Performing the ritual itself hadn't been easy. She wasn't sure how magic users did that sort of thing all the time. She hadn't needed to dress up or light any candles or incense, thankfully, but she'd needed to do a fair amount of chanting while painting the symbols that made up the required circle, and it had been _**immensely**_ difficult to remember the words while visualizing what each sigil represented, making sure she'd painted them all correctly and being careful not to smudge any of them, focusing on what she wanted the spell to do, _**AND**_ making sure she didn't let a single random thought, worry, or fear into her head to ruin the spell... She'd practiced a few times in her dorm room (sans the paint, of course), and even with that she'd needed every bit mental discipline she'd learned while growing up. She'd been relieved beyond words the circle had flared to life with a brilliant purple glow, almost not even feeling the cut on her left palm.

Which wasn't to say that, once the whole matter was resolved, she didn't immediately go find Farrah and ask if she could heal that for her, too. (Farrah, naturally, had agreed, even if she didn't like that Apple wouldn't explain what had happened to her hand.)

As Raven had suggested, once Cerise understood what Apple wanted to do, she was entirely willing to help. (Apple hadn't mentioned Kitty's participation. For whatever reason, Cerise just didn't seem to like her.) The evil animals in the Dark Forest could be something of a hazard to those who lived there - or, as in her case, were just passing through - and there was one in particular that needed to be dealt with before it killed someone. Whether they were her future subjects or not, Apple could never resist the opportunity to help people, so she'd agreed to use that one without pressing for further details.

In retrospect, she really should have asked a few more questions.

Apple had put everything she needed to complete the ritual into her bookpack, while Cerise had been packing a picnic basket full of helpful goodies: smoke bombs, grenades with fast-acting knock out gas, rope... and a turkey leg. Apple, naturally, had assumed that last was in case they needed bait to lure the animal into a trap, which Cerise had nervously agreed with. Taking that nervousness as a sign that she wasn't _quite_ as confident and blasé about their evening excursion to the Dark Forest as she was trying to come across as, Apple had offered to let her stay behind. This was for _her_ class, and _she_ was the one trying to get around having to actually do the assignment, so there was no reason for Cerise to go along if she didn't really want to. The other girl had seemed almost offended at the suggestion, any hint of anxiety vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

That wasn't to say Cerise hadn't been taking matters seriously. Apple wasn't nearly as fast as she was, so they were going to have to take care to choose something of a roundabout route to avoid most of the other dangerous predators, especially since she was convinced that they would be able to smell blood from Apple's freshly bandaged hand. (She supposed someone who would have to deal with a Big Bad Wolf at some point in the future would have to make sure to think about things like that.) The light Apple had brought with her wasn't very bright, but they were trying not to attract unwanted attention, so that worked out well enough. (Curiously, as well prepared as she was, Cerise hadn't brought any kind of light with her at all, as if she hadn't thought she'd need one. When Apple had asked about that, she'd just mumbled something about having a Candle app on her MirrorPhone.)

"I really do appreciate this, Cerise," she'd said as they'd begun their trek into the woods. "I know this probably isn't how you planned on spending your evening."

Cerise had shrugged that off. "Eh, at least this way I'm actually out doing something." She'd shaken her head. "Besides, it's for a good cause." She'd discouraged further small talk as they'd made their way deeper into the woods, unintentionally sparing Apple from the awkwardness of trying to find something to say. It had been a long time since she'd been so lost for conversation. She'd had innumerable etiquette lessons while growing up, but there'd always been some kind of common ground - royal duties, shared acquaintances, the party and/or function they happened to be at - to build from. With Cerise? Not so much. She had no idea what the other girl's class schedule was, what her home life was like, who her friends were... She supposed there was Raven, but Apple was pretty sure she and Cerise had _very_ different views about her roommate... and honestly, she hadn't been sure she would have wanted to start that conversation, anyway. She was aware the Rebels didn't exactly have the highest opinion of her, given her firm pro-destiny stance, and the idea that they saw her as some kind of bad guy because of it just made her feel uncomfortable. She didn't really need that confirmed.

Walking in silence - well, almost silence; she wasn't nearly as stealthy as Cerise - through dark and spooky woods had been a new experience, but not being alone had made it bearable. Cerise clearly knew what she was doing, and while she respected the dangers of the Dark Forest, she wasn't necessarily afraid of them. Her being (or at least appearing) so calm and in control of the situation had helped Apple stay calm, too, letting her be able to focus on their surroundings. To her surprise, the Dark Forest was actually kind of... pretty, in its own way. It didn't have the beauty and magic of the Enchanted Forest, but it wasn't the terrifying nightmare people made it out to be, either. It was just, well, a forest. She could almost understand why Cerise liked it out there. (She'd wanted to ask why Cerise apparently spent time out there if she wasn't preparing for the destiny she didn't seem to want, but Cerise had already made it clear they shouldn't be talking if they didn't have to. That might even have been part of why she'd made that decision, for all Apple had known.)

There had been a number of growls and roars coming from the darkness around them - they were why Apple could only _almost_ understand why Cerise liked it in the Dark Forest, though the hooded girl had later confided that even she usually only went out there during the day - so when Cerise had begun heading _toward_ one of them, Apple had realized they were getting close to whatever animal Cerise had chosen. They _had_ discussed the ritual a bit before entering the forest, so Cerise had known Apple needed to establish the circle first, before the animal could be lured onto it; unless it was really tiny, trying to paint it around the creature wouldn't work. As such, she'd waited until Apple had found an appropriate clearing and done so - if anything, the ambient noises had made it even harder to maintain her concentration while she worked than it had been on the first one - then gone off to lure it into position, at which point she would hit it with a sleeping gas grenade. Apple, hand hastily rebandaged, had hidden to wait, trying not to feel too nervous about being left there all alone with nothing but a smoke bomb and gas grenade to defend herself with. (She was so used to heroes coming along to save her that defending _herself_ had been something of a foreign concept; she didn't want too many people knowing what she was doing, though, so taking care of any problems that might arise before fate could see fit to drag any of those heroes into the situation was something of a necessity.) Cerise had been the one in danger, after all - or greater danger, anyway, as the good and evil teachers alike agreed that the Dark Forest was inherently dangerous, especially at night; the difference was in whether they saw that as a good thing or not - but still...

Then Cerise, moving faster than Apple had ever seen, had erupted from the bushes, an absurdly _huge_ bear in hot pursuit. She'd jumped high into the air - so high, how did she get so _high_? - and twisted around in a graceful mid-air barani flip (that would have had Coach Gingerbreadman selling his first-baked son to get her on the grimmnastics team if he'd seen it) to hit it in the face with her knockout grenade. The bear had stumbled to a halt within the circle's borders, coughing and roaring... but it hadn't been going down. Not wanting to risk it moving away, as it looked _way_ too heavy for them to drag it back into position by themselves, Apple had hastily thrown her own grenade. For a worrying moment, it had seemed like even that wasn't going to be enough... until, with a thud that she could have sworn that she felt through the ground, it had collapsed.

Apple had turned to congratulate Cerise on the successful capture - not to mention praise her for her amazing, gravity-defying moves - but her words had gotten stuck in her throat when she'd shown her light upon the other girl. Apparently, for all that she'd assured Apple that there wouldn't be any problems, that had been more difficult than she'd expected. She'd had one hand braced against a tree as she caught her breath... and her hood had fallen down. In all the time that Apple had known her, she'd _never_ seen Cerise without her trademarked hood on, before.

The long, furry, delicately-pointed ears that had caught Apple's attention had finally made it clear why. "And suddenly, you being so comfortable in the Dark Forest even at night makes so much more sense," she'd murmured.

Cerise (naturally) had heard her anyway, turning and frowning at her in confusion once her breathing had slowed to normal... and noticeably paled when she'd realized what Apple was looking at. She'd hastily pulled her hood back up, eyes wide in panic. "Y-you can't tell anyone!" she'd stammered out.

Apple had continued to stare at her wordlessly for another ten seconds or so, utterly failing to process any of what she'd been seeing. "But... I don't... Didn't your mother stick to her story?" she'd finally managed to ask.

"...technically."

That had cleared up precisely nothing. "What?"

It had been clear that Cerise hadn't wanted to discuss the matter at all, and Apple had felt bad for making her, but it wasn't like they could have just left things where they were. She was also pretty sure that Cerise hadn't wanted to chance her going around asking questions in an effort to get answers elsewhere, and risk clueing in everyone else. "Long story short, she used a smoke bomb to cover his escape; her grandmother was in on it, I guess."

"...oh." Apple had turned that over in her head a few times. "Well... I mean, nothing says he _couldn't_ just leave, does it? I may not know as much about your story as others, but isn't being chased away one of the options? Why not just say that's what happened?"

Cerise had sighed. "You wouldn't get it. Aside from Raven's mom going so completely off-script, the Whites and the Queens have always more-or-less gotten along, right?" That... wasn't _quite_ accurate, but it hadn't seemed like the time or place to get into _that_ discussion, so Apple had simply given her a non-committal shrug. "That is _not_ the case with the Hoods and the wolves, _especially_ the Badwolf family. Even if the rest of Ever After could deal with them flipping the script with their story like that - because this really goes way beyond the traditional escape methods that most storybook villains have - the citizens of Hood Hollow would _not_. They're also a bit... behind the times, let's say. You have _no idea_ how bad things would get if they knew the truth."

Apple had never been to Hood Hollow. She didn't really even know all that much about it. But what she _did_ know not only agreed with Cerise, it suggested she'd been understating matters severely. The tension between the two groups was kind of legendary - it wasn't _just_ because of Cerise's destined story that Apple hadn't been able to understand what she was seeing, after all - and it was why no one had ever been surprised to hear of trouble between Cerise and... Ramona Badwolf... Apple's eyes had widened. "Ramona _Badwolf_... She's your sister, isn't she?" she'd asked softly. "Well... You being a Rebel suddenly makes a lot more sense, too."

Cerise had smiled sadly. "Yeah. We may fight - a lot - but she's still my sister. With the whole Rebel thing - hex, even if it ended tomorrow - both sides of the family would be paying too close attention to how our story went for us to get away with the same kind of ruse Mom and Dad did. Which is hexactly why you _can't_ say anything!"

Apple's eyes had prickled with tears at the heartbreaking tone in Cerise's voice, and she hadn't hesitated to walk over and rest her hands on the other girl's shoulders. "Of course I'm not going to tell anyone," she'd assured her. "It isn't any of their business, and technicalities or not, your parents _did_ stick to their story. Whatever happened after that is no one else's business."

Cerise had looked hopeful, but also still somewhat skeptical. "Really? I always got the impression you were something of a stickler for detail, where destiny was concerned. Aren't you always trying to get Raven to be evil?"

She was, but that wasn't really the same thing, to her. The Evil Queen really needed to be a queen and, well, evil. It would be like if the Big Bad Wolf refused to be a wolf. "Non-evil Raven refuses to poison me," she'd said with a shrug. "No Telling is hexactly the same, and that's really all I need her to do, but she won't stop connecting poisoning me with being evil. Well, her and Headmaster Grimm. And Baba Yaga. And... Okay, I'm not sure if she _has_ to be evil - I mean, your parents prove some things can be worked around - though I'm also not sure that she doesn't, so..." She'd shaken her head. Standing in the Dark Forest at night really wasn't the time or place to be having _that_ conversation. "Anyway. I won't say anything, I promise."

Cerise had let out a breath slowly, visibly relaxing. Clearly, she'd understood what a promise from Apple White meant. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Apple had impulsively given her a quick hug before pulling back. "Oh, and for the record? I think your ears are beautiful." Honestly, she'd kind of had to fight down an urge to touch them, having decided that really wouldn't have been appropriate, or appreciated. (She _still_ wasn't quite sure where it had come from.)

Cerise had blinked at that, eyes wide, her cheeks turning a dusky crimson. "I... Nobody's ever called them that, before."

"How many people have ever seen them?" Apple had countered.

"That's... true," Cerise had conceded.

"Okay, then." Not long after that, it had occurred to Apple that she'd been standing there with her hands _still_ resting on Cerise's arms while she stared at the other girl for longer than she really needed to. Even then, it had taken her a few moments to decide she probably shouldn't _keep_ doing so. She must have been tired, she'd concluded, if she was zoning out like that; evidently, those rituals had taken more out of her than she'd thought. (Though, she'd had to admit, hugging Cerise had been oddly... nice.) "I'd... better go tag the bear," she'd said brightly, making herself let go of Cerise and walk over to where the bear was sprawled. The 'tag', as she'd called it, was a small stone that fit comfortably in the center of her palm. Each circle had one linked to it - fortunately, each had a different symbol carved into it, so she could tell them apart - and she'd used a hair tie to attach the one connected the circle in the Home Evilnomics classroom to the bear's fur. (She had also, of course, made sure to collect it once class was over, before Baba Yaga could send the bear away.) The lingering smell of the gas had kept any other predators from attacking the bear in the night - that was by design, Cerise had explained, since it was meant to be used in some pretty hostile places, and the whole point of using knockout gas was to _not_ to kill the target - and she'd made sure to curtain off the circle in the classroom before she'd locked up after herself, so all she'd needed to do was get down there before Baba Yaga did, to keep her from peeking. The circles were her creations, her will made manifest, and powered by her blood; the fresh bit of blood the next morning to permanently establish the bridge between them and remotely call the beacon - and bear - to her had meant that, with the Apple-tinged magic and scent of her blood coming from all around it, she'd become part of the scenery, as far as the bear was concerned.

Unfortunately, Baba Yaga had not. Really, looking back, Apple supposed she should have expected that to happen. But then, she hadn't quite gotten all that much sleep the night before.

Since then, however, things had definitely improved. Her plant was coming along nicely - well, _evilly_ , but that just seemed like semantics - she was breezing through all of her other classes, and, best of all, her birthday was coming up, and she just _knew_ it would be the best birthday ever.

* * *

"This is the _worst_ birthday ever..."

Jaye, who'd been engaged in her new tradition of 'ignoring her tablemate until she had no choice but to acknowledge White's presence', looked up from the textbook she'd been reading, mildly curious despite herself about the despondent tone. "It's your birthday?"

White had been staring moodily down at her crossed arms on the table in front of her, but that made her shoot a sideways look at Jaye. "Really? You had no idea? Didn't see any of the signs, or posters, or reminders about the Royal Cake Baking Contest? There's one right outside this classroom."

"I don't pay attention to that sort of thing." Student clubs were one thing - and not really a thing she was interested in, at that - but the more personal activities White and her friends got up to? Giggling about boys and shoes, royal nonsense, or going to parties? No, just... no. "Um, happy birthday, I guess?"

"Thanks." She still sounded depressed.

"So... what, you don't _like_ the baking contest?" That seemed unlikely. Everything she knew about White said she positively _thrived_ on that kind of attention.

"No, it's fine." White made a slight effort to perk up. "You can come, you know. If you wanted to. Everyone's invited. Given how many people enter, there's always way too much cake for me to eat by myself, so turnout is generally fairly high." If the idea that people might be showing up more for free cake than to celebrate her birth bothered her, she didn't let it show.

Which just brought them back to White's first comment. "What's making this birthday 'the worst', then?"

She sighed, looking back down at the table. "Raven."

"Ah." Of course it was. She generally was the source of White's melodrama, wasn't she? "What's she done this time?"

"She's baking me an apple crumb cake."

"...that bitch?"

"She refuses to put even a _drop_ of poison in it." White wilted further. "I mean, I tried. Pointed out that it was my birthday, and that was all I wanted, but... Even on _my birthday_ , she won't poison me. I just..." She put her head down on her arms, plaintively asking, "What am I doing wrong?"

Jaye... honestly didn't know what to say to that. She shot a helpless look at Erica, who only shrugged in return, looking equally lost. For that matter, nobody in the classroom seemed to have any idea what to tell White. "I don't... think the problem's you," she finally managed.

"I'm not sure anything like this has ever happened, before," Erica added. "Not necessarily the future storybook villain rejecting her destiny, but a sorceress refusing to poison a princess? And one that _wants_ to be poisoned, at that? Most villains would _kill_ to have someone like you in their stories." She looked at Baba Yaga for confirmation.

The teacher had been completing some paperwork while waiting for the class to finish arriving and settle into their seats. "Oh, indeed," Baba Yaga told them. "Truthfully, some _have_... but that's a discussion for another day," she hastily added. "Miss Queen's refusal of her destiny is unfortunate, to be certain. Still, that she's being so selfish in her actions can only be an _evil_ sign."

"That's what I keep telling myself," White agreed despondently. "But nothing changes."

"Can't you just _make_ her be evil?" Dominic asked. Jaye didn't know much about him - not even his last name - but she _thought_ he was supposed to be part one of the lesser known stories, and even there he was only the son of a butler, or something like that. (He had the sort of bland, generic appearance that seemed like it would fit well with that sort of destiny.) She was willing to bet White didn't know anything about him at all.

The question had likely been directed at Baba Yaga, but White answered, anyway. "No. Even if that curse we learned on the first day of the semester-"

"We?" Jaye muttered quietly.

"-could be used on people, that wouldn't work," White continued without missing a beat. Jaye wasn't sure White was aware of her surroundings enough to notice she'd even said anything. "She has magical defenses against that sort of thing. I guess with her mother being who she is, Raven _had_ to learn how to do that. The only way it'll work is if Raven _chooses_ to be evil; she won't do it the way she is now."

"Well, you know, you'd find no shortage of volunteers here to poison you," Billy the Goblin offered. A number of their classmates nodded or murmured in agreement.

White mustered up a mostly convincing smile. "That's sweet," she remarked, evidently choosing to take that in the spirit it was likely given. She sat back up, doing her best to at least externally shake off her depression. "I'm sorry, Madam Yaga. I didn't mean to disrupt class."

"Nonsense," Baba Yaga assured her. "We hadn't even started, yet, and I am a faculty advisor. Still, as this is neither the time nor the place for that discussion, let's get started with today's lesson."

For all that she was trying to put on a good show, White never really recovered her usual level of energy as class went on. Even her plant trying to take a bite out of Baba Yaga barely pulled a quiet, resigned sigh from her. On the one hand, this was kind of what Jaye had been hoping for since the semester started: White, quiet and unobtrusive, not insisting on trying to make conversation. On the other... Well, it was weird. Apple White was not meant to be depressed and subdued. Love it or hate it, she was a bubbly, energetic, vivacious young woman, and she was especially stubborn. Jaye didn't think White had given up, by any means, but everyone knew she honestly believed the official line that if those destined to didn't live up to their stories, they would cease to exist, and this being her birthday... Well, she was likely all too aware of her own mortality.

She didn't care what Erica said after class had let out, though. This did _not_ mean she was about to start _caring_ about the girl.

She did have a few questions to ask Queen, though. They did have Muse-ic Class together, though they'd never actually spoken. (Jaye didn't really socialize with many of her classmates, but she particularly tried to avoid those caught up in the whole Royal/Rebel nonsense.) As such, Queen was understandably surprised when Jaye pulled her aside after that class let out. "Um, yes? I'm sorry, I don't want to rush you, but I have something I need to go get started on."

"I know. Baking an apple crumb cake, I believe?"

Queen blinked at that. "So... You're in Home Evilnomics this semester, I take it?"

"And you're responsible for my new lab partner."

"Oh, you're the one that..." She looked vaguely apologetic. "Well, I guess I am. Sort of. It's complicated."

"That's nice," Jaye said, her tone making it clear that she _really_ didn't care.

"You know, when Apple said she thought she might be making a new friend, I would _not_ have guessed that she meant you."

"I'm not interested in discussing White's delusions." She was there on behalf of all the evil - or even just semi-dark - students and faculty to talk about Queen and what the _**hex**_ she was trying to accomplish with her little act of Rebellion... not because seeing White look so forlorn and near tears had been absolutely hearbreaking. Because she'd need to care about White for that to be true, and she didn't. At all. And she wasn't going to. Ever. And if she didn't care about White, obviously this couldn't be in any way connected to the way Queen kept hurting her.

It was always such a comfort to have logic on her side.

"What is wrong with you?" she pressed. "Seriously. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what the _hex_ you're trying to accomplish. Is this whole Rebel thing some kind of convoluted attempt to follow in your mother's footsteps and destroy the order of the fairy tale world? Because I don't appreciate being dragged into it, and I'm not alone in that."

Queen blinked, looking caught somewhere between stunned and utterly perplexed. "Is...? Wha- No! Why would you even ask me that?!"

"If the glass slipper fits..."

Queen shook her head. "Look, I just want to be able to live my life how _**I**_ choose, okay? I'm not evil, and I'm not going to be. You have no idea what it's like, being so feared and reviled, when you have done _**nothing**_ to deserve it! Why would I _want_ to be the next Evil Queen? Maybe my Mom enjoys people reacting to her like that, but I don't! To say nothing of what would happen if-" She shook her head again, much more sharply this time, visibly trying to dislodge whatever image was in her mind.

"You're putting the lives of every single person in your story at risk for the sake of your own wants and desires, and forcing every single one of them to conform to the destiny _you've_ decided upon," Jaye said flatly. "Exactly what part of that isn't evil?"

Queen was starting to get flustered. Had White seriously never tried this track, before? "Nothing is going to happen to anyone! We're all still here, aren't we?"

"I wasn't aware the time for your story to begin had come and gone."

"The point is, I talked with Giles Grimm about it-"

"Oh? Has that Riddle-ish curse he's under been removed?" Jaye interjected, somewhat curious despite herself.

"Maddie translated. Anyway, there's no guarantee that anyone will suddenly cease to exist if there's no new Evil Queen."

"So... what you're saying, then... is that you decided to risk your life and those of every single other person in your story - presumably including your families - and embarrass the forces of evil everywhere... because the crazy guy in the basement said 'maybe, maybe not'?" She smacked Raven over the head with her notebook. "Are you out of your _[bleep]_ ing mind? What the _[bleep]_ is wrong with you?" After all this time, she barely even noticed the school's omnipresent language censorship spell. Everyone knew how to interpret the bleeps, so there was almost no point to it, but that also meant there was no real reason to raise any kind of fuss about it.

"Ow!" Queen rubbed her head. "First of all, he's not crazy, he's just cursed. Secondly, I never thought it made any sense that if we don't do hexactly what our parents did, we'd cease to exist. As much as I hate hurting Apple's feelings - especially on her birthday - I'm not evil, and that isn't going to change."

"I see." Jaye pursed her lips for a moment, studying her. "So, what are you, then?"

"What?"

"Did I stutter?" She let out a quiet, irritated sigh. "What are you, if you're not evil? Because personally, I tend to define 'bad' as 'the absence of anything good'. Are you helping people? Saving lives? Feeding the hungry? Knitting blankets for orphans? What? What are you doing to supposedly make Ever After a better place?"

Queen looked stunned. "I... I'm..."

Jaye waited, but she didn't say anything else. "So, you're risking everyone's lives because of a premise that you never bothered researching past the 'flip a coin' stage just so that you can get what _you_ want, breaking your roommate's heart in the process, and all you're doing with your new free time is typical teenager nonsense?" She rolled her eyes, her tone turning dry as she snarked, "Yes, truly you are a force for good." She turned and walked out of the room - she _did_ have another class to get to - leaving a speechless Raven Queen behind her.

She had to admit, part of her had found that oddly satisfying.

* * *

By the time of the cake baking contest, Apple had managed to recover her usual level of good cheer. So what if Raven wasn't going to poison her today? It was still far, far too early to say that she never would. Her earlier poor attitude was her own fault for being so impatient, she told herself. Besides which, Raven was supposed to poison her with a poisoned apple, not a poisoned apple crumb cake, and she was supposed to be alone when it happened, or at least not surrounded by a crowd of her friends and fellow students. Maybe Raven had been worried about someone else also eating some of the poisoned cake?

History suggested that Raven likely hadn't been worrying about anything like that so much as she just didn't want to do it, but it was her birthday, so Apple was going to pretend that she had been.

The contest was going well, so far. She (and her "Official Taster", Blondie) had already examined and sampled cakes from a number of students. She always tried to pace herself, but her stomach was telling her that she wasn't going to be able to fit much more in there before she had... problems, so it was just as well that they were coming up on the final group. As much as she liked saving the best for last, she did sometimes think that she should maybe try the cakes her friends had made when she was still hungry, and could appreciate them more.

Ah, well, nothing to be done about it now.

Or almost nothing, anyway. It wouldn't be enough to make any kind of real difference, but she could delay for a minute or two she decided as she hopped down from the stage. She'd seen a pair of familiar (and unexpected) faces in the crowd. Sure enough, she found as she drew closer, it really was Jaye and Erica. "You came!" she exclaimed happily as she reached them.

"Yeah, well... Free cake," Jaye said with a shrug.

"That's why _I'm_ here, anyway," Erica chimed in, her expression projecting (what Apple, who knew a little something about her, took to be false) innocence, and Jaye shot her a brief, disgruntled look.

"Well, I'm glad you made it," Apple said, hoping to keep an argument from breaking out. It wasn't that she was trying to ignore Erica, but she couldn't deny that her attention kept drifting back to Jaye, especially at the implication that she _wasn't_ just there for the cake. (Also, if Erica wanted to make a day free of plotting and scheming her present, Apple was entirely on board with that.) "You're just in time for the last batch. After that, a winner is selected, then everyone has some cake."

"What does the winner get?" Erica asked.

"I think it's a gift card to Hocus Latte, this year."

"Nice."

"You _think_?" Jaye echoed. "Who organizes this, anyway?"

"My Mom," Apple replied. "Since I don't get to spellabrate my birthday with my family while I'm at school, she came up with an alternative." Not that there were any school rules _against_ her parents picking her up for the day after classes let out, but with her father the ruling monarch of their kingdom, and her mother in charge of a business empire... Well, she was never really surprised when she had to make do with video mirrorphone calls and gifts given to her by proxies. She did get to spend more time with all her friends, this way - she doubted she ever would have gotten Jaye to show up at a party at her castle, for example - which she thought just went to show how thoughtful her mother could be.

"Uh-huh." Jaye's expression was fairly inscrutable, and Apple wasn't entirely sure she _wanted_ to know what she was thinking. It probably wasn't very positive toward her family, though she couldn't have said why. Maybe once she started getting to know Jaye better, she'd be able to understand?

Maybe. There was obviously a lot more to her than 'cranky black mage prone to violence', but she wasn't making becoming her friend easy. Remembering her father's most frequently given piece of advice, that just made Apple all the more determined. "Well, back to it. C'mon, let's go."

She turned and headed back toward the stage, followed by Erica, who was dragging Jaye along with her. The latter didn't seem to appreciate this. "Why are we heading up there, hexactly? It's not like we baked anything."

"Because the Birthday Girl said to," Erica replied, sounding amused. Jaye grumbled something that probably would have been bleeped out if it had been loud enough to be heard, but stopped resisting.

There were other people on stage, besides those who had submitted entries in the contest, though admittedly there weren't many. (The stage was only so big, after all.) Some were from previous groups, and just hadn't gotten around to leaving the stage, yet. Lizzie Hearts was among them, though Apple had a sneaking suspicion that there might be something else she was waiting for.

The cakes made by Cedar, Briar, and Maddie were all good, if not terribly remarkable. They _looked_ great, though, and there _was_ an appearance category when it came to points. (Apple had to admit, she'd been a bit worried before tasting Maddie's cake, as the mad girl might have thrown in who-knew-what kind of ingredients while baking. She needn't have worried, though. The daughter of the owner and proprietor of the Wonderland Haberdashery and Tea Shoppe obviously knew what she was doing in the kitchen... even if she likely wouldn't have been able to explain it so that anyone else could understand.) Daring's cake... didn't really surprise her. "Oh, Daring. A cake with a picture of you on it?" Said picture was amazingly detailed, she had to admit - he'd get definite points in the appearance category with that - and it even perfectly captured his trademarked 'grinning, double finger gun' pose. (Apple wasn't quite sure what a "gun" was, beyond presumably some kind of weapon. No story she knew of involved any.) "How charming."

"I think you mispronounced 'lame'," Jaye muttered behind her.

Taking advantage of Blondie slicing herself a piece to taste test - Lizzie was hovering right next to her, telling Apple her hunch was right on - Apple leaned over toward Jaye and quietly replied, "Not really. It's the most beautiful thing he knows, after all." She'd had most of her life to get used to Daring's narcissism, so by that point she found it more adorable than anything else. "And he did make the cake himself," she added, seeing that Jaye hadn't been impressed with her first point. Looking back at the table - Daring's cake might not win, but it had passed the 'Blondie acceptability' test - she gave in to a mischievous impulse and asked, "Lizzie, would you cut me a piece, please?" The future Queen of Hearts looked at her with hopeful uncertainty, so Apple added, "Go ahead, say it. You _know_ you want to say it."

That did it. Expression shifting to one of pleasure, Lizzie happily announced, "Off with his head!" and expertly sliced out a square of cake for Apple.

It was a blueberry layer cake, which made for a nice change of pace after all the apple-themed ones. (Oh, she loved apples, there was no question about that. But even she needed a little variety in her diet.) But then, Daring could be surprisingly thoughtful, sometimes.

Only sometimes, though.

"And now we have Raven's cake," she said as she moved to the end of the table. (Which was good, as she already felt like she'd eaten a bit too much.) She tried to maintain the same level of good cheer she'd had the rest of the contest, though she would admit to feeling a bit less motivated then usual. That was no excuse, though. Her mother had lect- _talked to her_ about the importance of maintaining her royal decorum at all times during any kind of social event, no matter how she was feeling, or who was there.

The cake was purple and black - because of course it was; for someone so against being evil, Raven sure picked a lot of dark colors - which was an interesting cosmetic choice. She'd get points for that, if nothing else. For some reason, Raven was paying more attention to Jaye than she was to Apple. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?"

Apple blinked, then turned to look at Jaye in confusion. The black mage mused on that for a few seconds. "Mm... We'll see."

While she was distracted, Blondie managed to get a hold of a slice of Raven's cake. Ignoring - or not hearing - Briar's startled "Wait, Blondie, no!" she took a bite. "Oh, wow!" Blondie gushed, not noticing Briar's increasing look of dismay. "It's so moist!" _Squawk!_

What the...?

"And tender!" _Squawk!_ There was a magical flash and, well, poof, and... Blondie's head had abruptly turned into that of a bird. Another flash-poof later, Blondie had fully transformed into a yellow bird (a phoenix, maybe? Creature identification wasn't exactly Apple's strong suit), still wearing a bow as she flapped away, still squawking.

It took a moment for it to click (though, in Apple's defense, that had been _very_ unexpected): someone had tried to poison her! Her heart leapt. _Raven's cake_ had been poisoned! _Raven_ had tried to...

(Why did Raven look so confused?)

...to poison her, like she'd always _wanted_...

(She tried not to see Briar's look of chagrin as she tracked Blondie the phoenix through the air.)

...but, as Blondie would have said, something wasn't just right...

"Apple, I swear, I didn't have anything to do with this!" Raven told her, alarmed.

"No," Apple agreed sadly. "You never do, do you?" She'd barely believed Raven had tried to poison her for more than a moment or three. Why did it _hurt_ so badly to find out she hadn't? That she... wouldn't. Even on Apple's _birthday_... What would she do if Raven _never_ poisoned her? She wasn't about to give up trying to convince her to, but she realized she might need to develop some kind of backup strategy, in case she failed. Raven's attempt at finding a replacement had been rather sad, but maybe she should consider finding out if you even _could_ substitute someone else in place of your storybook villain. Maybe Baba Yaga or Headmaster Grimm would know.

Raven was standing right next to her, and she'd never felt such a gaping chasm between the two of them.

First things first, though. "Briar," she began.

"Go and get Blondie down?" Briar interjected hastily. "Absolutely." She took a bite of Raven's poisoned cake, and in a magical flash... turned into a pink turtle, her sunglasses now resting on a rose-patterned shell. "Well... that's going to make catching her harder." Why she could talk when Blondie couldn't seem to, Apple had no idea.

Jaye intercepted Briar as she was making her very, very slow getaway. She held out a hand and somehow levitated Briar the turtle into the air at face level. (Manipulating the air, maybe? Exactly how Jaye's magic worked was one of the many things Apple wanted to know about her.) "Are you going to hexplain how Creature Concoction got into that cake, or am I going to be making Her Royal Highness a bowl of turtle soup for her birthday?" Erica was probably the only one who knew if Jaye was kidding or not, and she only looked amused at the whole thing.

"Please don't threaten to kill and eat my friends," Apple requested tiredly. She really didn't feel like she had much of any energy left. That was it, she decided. She was done for the day. Her mother might not like it, but she wasn't going to be able to maintain her usual demeanor for much longer, so she needed to get away from the crowd sooner, rather than later. Fortunately, she had a good excuse. She reached out and plucked Briar from Jaye's magical grip. The effects of standard Creature Concoction, she remembered reading in one of her Home Evilnomics textbooks, could be reversed with rosehip... which happened to be one of the main ingredients in Briar's cake. At least she'd been smart enough to bring the antidote with her. Apple took a look around, identifying who was most likely to be able to help. "Ashlynn, could you and Hunter wrangle Blondie? She needs to eat some of Briar's cake." She gave Briar a mild glare that promised far worse in the future. "Doesn't she?" she asked pointedly.

"...yes," Briar admitted weakly.

"We're on it," Ashlynn assured her, which Apple acknowledged with a brief, weary smile as she collected a slice of Briar's cake to undo her BFFA's transformation... eventually.

It would be a lot harder for Briar to get away as a turtle, after all.

"Once she can speak again, Blondie will announce the winner of the contest," Apple informed the gathered crowd. She winced internally when she saw Dexter Charming, Blondie's cameraman for her MirrorCast show, filming the whole thing, but there was really nothing to be done about that. "I'd like to thank everyone for coming, and I hope you enjoy the cake. If you'll all hexcuse me, Briar and I need to have a little talk."

Briar gulped nervously.

Jaye walked with her off the stage until they were far enough away from the crowd not to be overheard. "Well, as much as that may have sucked, I hope you enjoy at least some of the rest of your birthday... Apple."

Apple started, looking at Jaye in surprise, and her lips curled upward into the first entirely genuine smile she'd had all day. "Thank you," she said sincerely, only partially referring to her birthday wishes.

"And if you change your mind about the soup..."

A laugh bubbled up, much to her surprise. "I'll keep that in mind."

Maybe this _wasn't_ the worst birthday ever, after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** _Ever After High_ is owned by Mattel.

* * *

Ups and Downs

"Well, well, if it isn't the beauty queen..."

"I didn't really win that pageant. Technically, I don't think anyone did." Apple might have been more upset about Daring's derailing of the pageant if he hadn't _immediately_ received a healthy dose of karma right afterward. "Personally, I would have voted for Cedar. She's the one who helped me understand what _real_ beauty is all about."

"Okay." Jaye tapped a few times on the table she was sitting at. "Why are you here?" she finally asked.

'Here' was the school library - or the _lifairy_ , depending on who you asked. Apple was carefully balancing a stack of books in her arms, and gratefully took advantage of the opportunity to set them down on the table. "I'm a bit behind on my thronework, which is... kind of new, for me." Not for most of her classes, of course. She could do some of that in her sleep - she suspected she actually _had_ , in at least one case, when she'd been up super late finishing an essay for Kingdom Management, only to discover the next morning that a Geografairy assignment she didn't quite remember getting to was also done - but, as she'd noted before, Home Evilnomics was different. "I thought I only needed those six books, but I guess you're supposed to have taken a bunch of prep classes by this point, because I kept getting lost on things that the authors apparently thought were wickedly obvious, and online research can only get you so far." She paused. "What about you? It's kinda weird seeing you out in public by yourself." Not that she was complaining. She didn't have anything against Erica, exactly, but Jaye was the one she liked talking to.

"This isn't hexactly out in public," Jaye countered, seeming more vaguely resigned than anything when Apple sat down. (Apple actually viewed that as progress, since it wasn't too long since she would have been openly annoyed at the sudden company.) "If you must know, I was just reviewing some old spells, seeing if there were any tweaks I could make." Indeed, there was a dusty old tome on the table in front of her, next to which was a notepad filled with figures and calculations Apple couldn't make any sense of.

That last part actually boded well for something Apple had been considering the past few days, while struggling to stay caught up with her thronework, but she needed to ask something else first. "How's that going?" Jaye wouldn't be in the mood to agree to anything if Apple tried to pull her away from something that she was enjoying, and this didn't seem to be school-related.

"It's not, really." She didn't seem terribly bothered by that, though. "Sometimes, you just can't improve on the classics."

If only Raven saw it that way... "Then, since you don't go in for hextracurricular activities, you have enough free time that you might be able to... help me?" Apple asked hopefully.

"With what?" Jaye didn't sound terribly enthused, but she didn't exactly sound _against_ the idea, either.

Vague curiosity would have to do. "My Home Evilnomics work. I can handle everything else, no problem, but that...? That's another story. I was originally supposed to be taking History of Tall Tales when I made my schedule for this semester." Jaye made a quiet sound that was somewhere between surprise and amusement. (From what Apple understood, Jaye had transferred out of that class last semester, though she didn't have much in the way of details about it.) "I would have been able to handle juggling my royal and social activities with that easily enough, but with Home Evilnomics, even something as simple as a beauty pageant threw me off schedule. It wouldn't be fair of me to break any of my commitments, but I can't let my grades slip, either."

"It would really be _such_ a problem if you had less than an A in _one_ class?" Jaye asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Apple replied simply.

"Because...?"

"Because it would be!" Before Jaye could ask Apple for an explanation for that outburst, the Evil Step-Librarians popped up from seemingly nowhere to shush her.

"So, you're really _that_ much of a perfectionist?" Jaye asked quietly once they'd departed.

People had called Apple that and worse before (usually behind her back when they _thought_ she couldn't hear them), so she tried not to let it bother her. "I don't see how always wanting to do my best and get things done properly is a bad thing," she said primly. She paused, then muttered, mainly to herself, "Besides, I would _never_ hear the end of it..."

"Ah." Jaye was giving her this Look, like she'd read more into that than Apple wanted her to, but thankfully declined to comment. "So, you want me to... what, hexactly? Tutor you in villainy?"

"Sort of." Just saying 'villainy' was a little broad, and a lot of what fell under that category wouldn't be covered in a Home Evilnomics class. "More like what I need to know to fill in the gaps in what the books are saying. I know you're not, strictly-speaking, evil, but you still have a better grasp of all that - and what we're doing in class - than I do."

"Probably true." She was silent for a long few moments. "And what would I be getting out of this?"

Well, it wasn't like she'd actually expected Jaye to simply give up her free time to help out just because Apple wanted her to. "What would you want?" she asked evenly.

Jaye considered that. It would have been a dangerous question to ask someone like Erica, with her political aspirations and manipulative tendencies, but Jaye didn't care about that sort of thing. "I think we can work out some kind of financial compensation," she finally replied.

"You want money?"

"Hey, all the rare magic books I collect, the spell and potion ingredients I use, replacements I might need for damaged clothing... They don't pay for themselves, and not all of us are independently wealthy. I don't hexactly have time to be hired by someone going on an epic quest while school is in session." At Apple's inquisitive glance, she added, "Black mage, remember? Kinda what we do."

"I didn't think there were that many people embarking on Epic Quests these days," Apple remarked, subconsciously capitalizing the words. She didn't have a problem with the request - if she called Jaye a paid consultant, hopefully her mother wouldn't either, as Apple had never previously needed a tutor in her life - but she was always happy to be able to learn more about Jaye.

"There aren't what I'd call a lot," Jaye admitted. "Though the ones that require trips to other worlds are _not_ cheap. You have no idea what kind of prep work goes into journeys like that."

"Maybe you can tell me about it, sometime," Apple suggested nonchalantly, as if getting to know Jaye better wasn't oddly appealing to her. "Right now, though, maybe you can help me with this latest assignment? Sort of a trial run, see how it goes?"

Jaye was quiet for another minute, thinking that over. Apple was careful not to let her anxiety show, though she wasn't really sure _why_ it was so important to her that Jaye agree - she probably _could_ get by on her own, if she had to - just that it was. "I suppose a practice session wouldn't be unreasonable," Jaye said finally. "That was a pretty easy assignment, too, which should help."

"Not if you don't know all the terms involved, and can't find the definitions anywhere," Apple replied.

They were (mostly) on a first name basis, now, but Apple still had to almost pull conversation from Jaye in class. As such, it was a little strange to hear her speaking unprompted, and with longer answers to any questions Apple asked. A good kind of strange, though; Apple very much thought she could get used to it. The Step-Librarians, however...? They never liked it when people were talking in the Library _at all_. Having a continuous conversation, therefore, was simply unacceptable. The fact that it was about classwork was probably the only reason they didn't simply kick Apple and Jaye out. (There were only so many times they could do that sort of thing before Headmaster Grimm fired them, whether they were supposed to be evil or not.) Still, there was only so long Apple could put up with the twin glares being aimed their way before she came to a decision. "We should probably move this somewhere else," she announced quietly. "With all the notes we've taken, I think we have enough to finish up in my room. Raven won't be back for a little while longer."

Jaye stared at her for a long few moments, expression unreadable. "If _anybody_ else had said that to me, I'd suspect they had something else entirely in mind," she finally replied.

Apple blinked. "Such as?" she asked innocently.

"...oh, wow." Jaye shook her head. "I knew you princesses were sheltered, but _[bleep]_."

The Step-Librarians didn't like even censored profanity, but since Apple and Jaye were already packing up their stuff to leave, they didn't do anything beyond glaring harder... which they did. A lot. Apple barely noticed, looking at Jaye in confusion. "What? What are you talking about?"

"If you have to ask, it's nothing you need to worry about."

That cleared up precisely nothing, but Jaye didn't seem terribly inclined to comment on the subject further, and Apple couldn't exactly make her. She made a conscious decision to set the matter aside, though she knew the odds were good that she'd be coming back to it later, at some point. She was aware that her inability to leave things alone until she had satisfactory answers to her questions could be a problem, sometimes. Fortunately, the rest of her 'trial run' tutoring session provided a perfect distraction. Her biggest problem in understanding what her books were telling her was that they kept listing people, places and events that she'd never heard of. Sometimes that was because they were so obscure that only someone who'd been taking villainy classes for a while would know anything about them, while other times it turned out that the forces of evil (or even semi-evil) used completely different terms for things than everyone else. It was something of a truism in Ever After that there were two sides to every Story - though Jaye seemed to think there were actually three: "Your side, their side, and the Truth" - but Apple had never stopped to think that they might use different names for things.

"You're thinking about it now, at least," Jaye said when she voiced that realization. "That's more than most who walk around with that willfully ignorant 'everything is good versus evil, nothing else exists' mindset can manage."

"I don't think that's a fair statement," Apple replied, not sure if she'd just been complimented or insulted... or possibly both. "I mean, all of the stories Baba Yaga's told would be from an evil perspective, wouldn't they? There weren't any terms I wouldn't recognize from what I learned while growing up."

"None of those stories delve too deeply into specifics, though, do they?" Jaye countered, which was true enough. "Those who are more on the 'bad' side of the spectrum don't have an entirely separate language, they just have a different perspective. Good triumphing over evil wouldn't hexactly be a positive outcome for them, so they'd give such an event an appropriate name." She paused, studying Apple - they were both sitting on Apple's bed, though Jaye had elected to sit at the far end, with all their study materials between them - then asked, "You wanna know a little secret?"

She didn't really even need to think about that. "Sure."

"Nobody's the villain of their own story." At Apple's confused look, she continued, "Yes, I'm serious. No one is an unjust villain in their own mind. Even - perhaps even _especially_ \- those who are the worst of us. Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices that they would call 'hard but necessary steps' for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story. I would be willing to bet that the first Evil Queen was only referred to as such after she was dead, and your BFFA, Briar? Think about her Story. The Dark Fairy, who at that point had done nothing to the royal family, was deliberately snubbed by being the only one _not_ to be invited to their daughter's christening. Even without being able to understand how someone from the magical community might feel about that, you were raised high society; you should know what kind of an insult that was, especially back then. When she showed up anyway, to try and rectify the matter, she was insulted further and nearly ejected on sight. As such, she came up with an appropriate punishment, but not an immediate one - she gave the king and queen eighteen years to apologize and try to make amends, as she could have undone the curse at any time, yet their stubborn pride prevented that. Rather than correct her altered curse or go after the fairy who'd weakened it, she let the changes stand, so that the young princess, her family and the rest of the castle's staff will sleep away the next century in an enchanted stasis, then wake up and go about their business. Or Jack and the Beanstalk: Naive farmboy trades a cow for magic beans, ventures up the resulting beanstalk to find and break into a giant's castle, then repeatedly steals from the giant until he's caught in the act, whereupon he flees back down the stalk, only to cut it down when the rightfully angry giant pursues him, sending his victim falling to his death. Are we _really_ supposed to interpret Jack as being some kind of hero?"

Apple... honestly had no idea what to say to any of that. "I... But... I mean, even the villains call _themselves_ evil," she stammered out. "Even the studying we're doing is for Home _**Evil**_ nomics."

"Which brings us right back to the difference in perspective," Jaye promptly replied. "You view evil as binary: you are, or you aren't. It's really more of a spectrum. Oh, there really are some complete monsters out there, I won't pretend otherwise. For everyone else, though, being 'evil' simply means saying and doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals. Take your roommate, for hexample. You want her to be your storybook nemesis, so you keep trying to convince her to be evil. The problem with that being that she kind of already is: she refuses to be the villain of your story, to the point of risking being erased from existence to avoid it. If she gave in and abandoned her own desires to do what you want her to, she wouldn't be being evil by that definition, and if you got her to do it for the sakes of everyone else in your Story... Well, that wouldn't be evil by _any_ definition. So unless you change how _you_ define evil, your efforts are doomed to failure."

Apple felt like she'd been punched in the chest. Repeatedly. "So... What am I supposed to _**do**_?" she asked helplessly. "I don't _want_ to make Raven be something she isn't, or do something she absolutely doesn't want to do, but how can I take that risk? You know as well as I do that Destiny is a real thing. I've never heard of anyone successfully fighting against their fate, but I also can't believe that _no one_ was ever so unsatisfied with their role that they rebelled against it until Raven came along, especially given how you're defining the term evil. That suggests three possibilities to me: either it's impossible, any records of someone succeeding were erased, or they and their stories really did cease to exist. I really need to know which of them it is, but... how? How am I supposed to find out when anytime I ask, I only ever after get the official line? _Is there_ even a way to find out?"

"Hmm..." Jaye looked quietly intrigued. "That would certainly be an entirely new avenue of magical research: investigating and analyzing the forces of Destiny, itself. I can discreetly ask around, see if anybody else would be willing to help look into the subject."

Apple wasn't sure why _Jaye_ felt the need to be discreet - she wasn't officially good or evil, so who cared what she researched in her free time? - but didn't argue. She didn't want people thinking that the future Snow White was even indirectly questioning her destiny. "Thank you. If there's any way I can make sure my future subjects - as well as everyone else involved in the Story - will be safe and happy without twisting Raven into something she isn't, I'd happily take it."

"Of course you would. You're not evil by any definition of the term, either." One corner of Jaye's mouth curled upward. "Probably another reason you're having problems with Home Evilnomics."

"Thank you." She paused. "Um, I think." She shook her head, sighing. "So, what should I do, then? If there's no good way to get Raven to change her mind, and no evil way to do it... What's left?"

"If it's really destiny, it'll happen whether Queen wants it to or not, right? Isn't the hexcuse that you give when anyone asks you whether or not you're dating Charming that you're only in high school? Stop worrying about it for now."

There were so many things in what Jaye had just said to comment on, Apple was momentarily unsure where to start. "Um... Okay, first of all, this thing you have with using people's last names is going to cause you problems, one of these days. Even aside from Daring and his siblings, there are a number of unrelated Charmings in and around this school; Briar and her cousin aren't the only ones named Beauty; even Raven shares a last name with the Snow Queen's daughter, Ingrid." Apple didn't really know Ingrid - she wasn't sure they'd ever even spoken - but someone with tan skin, white and silver hair, and purple eyes - not to mention typically wearing a white dress with snowflake patterns and matching jewelry - was hard to miss. "My Dad was even a Prince Charming."

"Yeah..." Jaye began slowly. "Look, I don't know how distantly he's related to your future husband-"

"Oh, he isn't at all," Apple interrupted. Doing so was rude, she knew, but still not as bad as allowing Jaye to continue proceeding under a false assumption like that. "Like I said, unrelated Charmings. They keep _very_ careful track of that sort of thing. I think it started back in the days when people took their last names from their professions - pretty sure that's why there's so many people with the name of Smith, for hexample. If you were a prince, and were apparently very charming, so you'd come to be called Prince Charming. If I weren't the future Snow White, my name might be Queen, too. And if you're the first black mage in your family in however many generations, that may well be the origin of your last name, too."

"Might be," Jaye agreed with a mild shrug. "First of all?" she repeated quizzically.

"What do you mean, hexcuse?"

"You don't seem terribly interested in, or even attracted to, your future Prince Charming," Jaye noted. "Mind you, given what a vapid, narcissistic, arrogant loudmouth he is, I can't hexactly _blame_ you for that..."

Apple frowned. "He's not really that bad," she protested.

"Who did he pick as the winner of that _female_ beauty contest you were in, again?"

"Oh, he's a total narcissist," Apple admitted readily. "He can be kind of full of himself, too. Still, underneath all that, he really is a good guy. He takes the time to hang out with any girl who asks - which tends to be a _very_ long waiting list, believe me - and he really is every bit the knight in shining armor that he comes across as. Also, well, while even I might sometimes think he's a bit insensitive toward Dexter and Darling, I know from first-hand hexperience just how much he loves and cares about them. He _couldn't_ be my future Prince Charming if he was as bad as he seemed. There are standards, for that sort of thing, you know."

"I'll take your word for it." She was silent for several moments. "I also can't help but notice that even while singing his praises, you _still_ don't seem to think of him as more than a friend, at best."

Apple sighed quietly. Truthfully, she actually had noticed that lack of interest on her part herself, now and then over the years. She sometimes wondered if that meant there was something wrong with her, but typically just wrote it off as her destiny just not having kicked in, yet. "I did pretty much grow up with him," she began, trying to puzzle her way through her mixed feelings toward an honest explanation. "That might have something to do with it. Honestly, there have been days when I thought that maybe having siblings might be the best part of marrying him... but, um, don't tell Daring I said that."

"You say that like you think I ever planned - or even wanted to - talk to him about anything." Jaye shook her head. "And, I'm sorry, but did you just say that your families have been trying to get you two to hook up _since childhood_?" she asked, sounding disturbed.

"What? Oh, no, nothing like that. They just thought that, since we were destined to be together, we should be able to get to know each other, first, so that we could become friends, and grow to care about each other, rather than have me be woken up by a perfect stranger that I would then be hexpected to marry."

Jaye made a thoughtful sound. "I guess I can understand that."

"Our parents went through the hexact same thing, ever after all," Apple reminded her. "They know what we'll be going through, and how best to make things as easy as possible for us. Despite what you might think, they're not heartless; they just wants what's best for us, as well as for everyone else." They'd gotten more than a little off topic, she realized, but before she could figure out how to bring the subject back to schoolwork, she heard her dorm room door being unlocked, then Raven entered.

Her roommate was hexting someone as she came in - probably Maddie; Raven might have been friends with some of the other Rebels to varying degrees, but Maddie was still unquestionably her BFFA - so it took her a few seconds to notice she had company. She stiffened a bit upon seeing Jaye, which left Apple feeling vaguely annoyed, though she wasn't sure why. "Oh. I'm sorry. I don't want to interrupt..."

"Don't be silly," Apple told her, pretending like there wasn't a part of her that did just want Raven to leave. "This is your room, too. I'd originally planned on studying in the library, but, well, you know the Step-Librarians..."

"Ah." Indeed, as with anyone who'd ever made use of the school library, that was all the explanation Raven needed. "I'm surprised you're not studying with Briar. I thought you two made up."

"Oh, we did," Apple assured her. To Jaye, she explained, "Briar can throw _amazingly_ effective study parties... if you can keep her awake long enough. She even managed to help us totally ace one of Professor Rumpelstiltskin's notoriously impossible tests that way." She turned back to Raven. "And, yeah, she hurt my feelings, but she meant well, and just wanted to do something nice for me on my birthday. She even made sure to pick something that wouldn't actually hurt me. Besides... She's my BFFA. I really couldn't stay mad at her."

"Can you stay mad at anyone?" Jaye wondered, sounding honestly curious.

Apple considered that. "I don't know," she admitted. "I've never tried."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"There's also the fact that Briar wouldn't be much help when it comes to Home Evilnomics," she told Raven.

"You could have asked me, you know."

"Could she have?" Jaye interjected, and Apple was starting to notice an odd tension in the room she just didn't get. "She actually wanted _help_ with the subject, not you assuming she was asking as part of a plan to get you to be more evil and storming off in a huff."

"I also kind of ran into you first," Apple said, hoping to try and calm things down a bit. "Though... yes, I would like to avoid starting a fight, and I do want your help." She paused, then added, "So... yeah. I'm sorry, Raven, but I'm seeing another villain." She politely pretended she didn't see Jaye rolling her eyes.

"Ooooookaaaayyy..." Raven said slowly, giving her an odd look.

"I think we've found another of those things that only matters to you, Apple," Jaye told her, sounding quietly amused. Viewing that as a preferable alternative to the not-quite-hostility that had been in the air seconds earlier, Apple let the statement pass unchallenged.

They'd been mostly finished with the tutoring session before they'd wandered so far afield, so once they resumed working, it didn't much longer to deal with the rest of it. Raven, who'd gone to her desk to start on her own thronework, had put in her earbuds so she could listen to music and at least provide them with the illusion of privacy, which Apple thought was nice of her. She would have rather had everyone get along and be friends, but she knew Jaye wasn't very good at dealing with social situations, and Raven was fairly prickly when it came to the subject of villainy and being evil. If she wanted to start bringing Jaye into the group - and she found that she did - she would have to do so slowly. Even if she and Raven were ignoring each other as best they could, this seemed like a good first step.

Afterward, when Jaye was leaving, Apple made sure to walk her to the door. "So, I think the trial run went pretty well, don't you?"

"Surprisingly enough, yes, I do." Jaye wasn't smiling, exactly, but her expression did contain the hint of one. "Which means, if this is going to become a regular thing, we'll need to address the subject of compensation. Would you prefer it to be on a per session basis, or a regular weekly charge? I don't know how much help you will or won't need in the future, and I'm not so crass as to charge you hourly - or, worse, by the minute."

"Hmm..." Obviously, if Jaye didn't know how much help she might or might not need, Apple didn't, either. "Well, I want to be fair, so I guess weekly. My schedule can be a bit erratic, sometimes, but I'd be happy to set aside some time for you on a daily basis to review everything we went over that day in class. That way, we won't have to go over too much at once on any given day, and I won't eat up too much of your free time." She mentally reviewed her own schedule. "Unless something special comes up, my evenings are usually free." Sure, she sometimes went to go see movies with friends at the multihex - and she realized, to her chagrin, that she subconsciously lumped Daring into that category, as opposed to considering going with him to be a date - but she could schedule those trips around her studying.

"Evenings are fine." Jaye raised an eyebrow. "Daily, huh? You're really that worried about your grades, still?"

"The more I stay on top of this, the less reason to be worried I'll have." Apple paused, then, before she could stop herself, admitted, "Besides, I like spending time with you."

Jaye's eyebrow only rose further. "Really?" she asked, sounding politely skeptical.

"Yes, really," Apple assured her. She hadn't meant to bring the subject up, but now that she had, she wasn't going to lie about it. "You're not like anyone I've ever met, before - and I don't just mean your lack of interest in the Royals vs Rebels conflict, though your unique outside perspective can be rather enlightening. You're very upfront with your feelings, which can certainly be a refreshing change of pace after dealing with courtly matters so often. You are who you are, and don't ever pretend otherwise. Not to mention that you honestly don't care whose daughter I am, or how popular I am, or only like me for my looks. I work hard to be a good future ruler and a good successor to my mother, you know? But all I ever hear is how _pretty_ I am... except from you. You're just... really interesting, is all." She ignored how warm her cheeks felt by the end of that. Always being honest meant _always_ being honest, even if it got a little embarrassing. And maybe there was a part of her that thought, perhaps naively, that if she opened up to Jaye, she might ultimately return the favor. "I'm really hoping we can be friends."

Jaye was studying her again, though Apple still had no idea what she was looking for. "Friends, hmm? And is that all you want?"

What more was there? "I don't know. It's what I want right now, anyway."

"I suppose that's fair. I guess we'll see what happens." For all that she was trying to sound noncommittal, though, Jaye didn't seem like she had anything against the idea of them being friends, which was a definite change from the beginning of the semester, and made Apple feel all warm and fuzzy. She tried to keep that off her face, though, not wanting to discourage Jaye when she was finally making real progress in getting to know her. "So, sometime after dinner, tomorrow?"

What was she doing tomorrow? Ah, yes... "Sounds good," Apple decided. "Barring any emergencies, I should have an hour or so free at seven." Remembering how their attempt at studying in the library had gone, and wanting to avoid any more tension between Jaye and Raven, she added, "Would your roommate mind if we went back to your room, this time?"

Jaye hesitated, then admitted, "I... don't actually have a roommate, anymore. She... sort of dropped out in the middle of last semester."

Apple blinked. "Sort of?"

"It's complicated. Let's just say it involved magic fish, one bad-tempered unicorn, a wanna-be hero, and her poorly thought out attempt at turning herself into a mermaid. She's lucky she only wound up temporarily dead."

Apple's eyes widened. "Um, yikes."

"To say the least. And yes, I suppose we can use my room." A look of quiet amusement stole across her face as she mused to herself, "Hex, it'll even be the first time I bring a girl back to my room for 'studying' where we actually do nothing but study."

Apple frowned at her, confused. "As opposed to what?"

For a moment, Jaye seemed like she might actually answer her this time, only to pause with her mouth open, stay that way for a long moment, then close it, shaking her head in amusement. She patted Apple's cheek a few times, remarking, "Sweet fairy godmother, you're adorable." With that, she turned and left, Apple staring after her in bewildered consternation.

So help her, she was _going_ to get Jaye to explain that.

* * *

" _The MirrorNet! It's down!_ "

Jaye winced. She hadn't been standing anywhere near Briar (she'd privately conceded that Apple had been correct that there were too many people who had the same last names in and around Ever After High to only refer to them by such) - in truth, she hadn't even _seen_ the other girl - but she still had to fight down the impulse to jump and/or fry someone at that shout. Whatever else one might say about her, Briar could clearly be _**loud**_ when she wanted to.

Apple, who'd been quietly talking to her about what she might need to bring with her to that evening's study session, looked down the hall toward where Briar and company were freaking out about their lack of MirrorNet access, frowning in concern. She quickly schooled her expression - she always strove to maintain control over what emotions she displayed, whether someone was watching or not - and headed toward her friends, dragging Jaye along behind her. Jaye's eyebrows rose when she found that she couldn't actually _stop_ her forward momentum. "You're stronger than you look," she murmured.

"I have to be." And there were so very, very many ways to interpret that statement. Before she could figure out which one (or ones) Apple had meant, they had reached the group.

"-everyone about the hexcellent new band playing at the Red Shoes Dance Club tonight!" Briar was saying.

"Or you could do those things by _talking to each other_ ," Raven told her calmly.

For a moment, Jaye hoped that the entirely sensible suggestion would calm their fears regarding the meaningless trivialities they'd been lamenting not being able to engage in... until Apple, who'd _finally_ let her go, piped up to add, "Except that Professor Rumpelstiltskin's 'online only' test is due by sunset today!"

"Ooo, I forgot about that," Raven admitted. She paused for a moment. "Okay, let's panic."

Jaye sighed to herself, trying to ignore the five girls running around like chickens with their heads cut off (though without the amusing crashing into everything). Thankfully, they didn't keep it up for very long before Apple proclaimed that they needed to get to the bottom of things. Jaye wasn't sure how much investigating that really required - it seemed fairly obvious to _her_ what was going on - but in short order she found herself being dragged along with the others to talk to Dexter Charming.

The problem, apparently, was that someone was hogging all the bandwidth. Somehow, still none of them managed to make the obvious connection... though she had to admit, running around to stop Apple's narcissistic non-boyfriend from uploading a couple _thousand_ pictures of himself, keep Melody Piper from downloading Grimm-only-knew how many remixed songs, and shut down _whatever_ it was that Blondie was doing had been kind of fun. (And maybe she had taken a bit too much pleasure in frying Daring's MirrorPad. So what? Apple had wanted her to contribute to the group's efforts, hadn't she?)

Still, though, enough was enough. "Okay, let me save you all a _lot_ more running around," she interjected after Apple pointed out that they only another two hours to take the online test. "The professor that's notorious for assigning impossible assignments and insanely difficult tests in order to give students detention so that they'll have to spin straw into gold for him gives you an _online only_ test... and the MirrorNet promptly goes down..." She shook her head. "Am I really the only one seeing the obvious, here?"

Apple gasped. "You really think Professor Rumpelstiltskin would...? But that's against school rules! Isn't it?"

"If it isn't, it certainly should be," Raven grumbled. She, at least, didn't need any further convincing.

Dexter had initially seemed somewhat dubious, but interestingly, the moment Raven indicated she felt otherwise, he was entirely onboard with the idea. Jaye filed that observation away for future reference. "There's only one thing to do," he proclaimed. "Go to the heart of the MirrorNet!"

Jaye wasn't sure there even was such a thing, anymore - the MirrorNet had grown to be fairly well all-encompassing, very quickly - but fortunately, he'd only meant the school's MirrorNet hardware. There, to her utter lack of surprise, they found the source of the trouble: Professor Rumpelstiltskin. She discreetly got out her MirrorPhone, opened up the video app, and hit record.

It was almost pathetically easy to get him to confess to what he'd done. He seemed almost proud of it... until Ashlynn threatened to call Headmaster Grimm, ever-so-politely wondering what he might have to say about the whole thing. For all that he'd remained oblivious to how much trouble he was getting himself into, Rumpelstiltskin _hadn't_ missed Jaye filming him.

It was decided that he would cancel the test and give everyone more time to study, with Apple coolly adding, "And I think it's only fairest that he fixes what he broke."

Fortunately, once things had been resolved, Jaye was finally able to extricate herself from the group. Why, exactly, Apple had felt the need to drag her along with everyone, she wasn't sure. She decided she was going to have to be a bit more careful being anywhere around Apple when they weren't in class or alone, unless she wanted to risk that happening again. Whether or not she and Apple were friends, that didn't automatically mean she wanted to start hanging out with _everyone_. Fortunately, everyone had been too distracted with their MirrorNet woes and worrying about their impending test to wonder what someone they didn't really know - and who wasn't even in that class, no less - had been doing there. Really, there was only one thing she was sure of, after all was said and done:

Watching Apple be ruthless, even if only a little, had been oddly... appealing.


End file.
